User Reviews

I wasn't sure if I should bother reviewing a movie with at the time of writing, twelve reviews, but then I thought, why not, I'm not above punching down on garbage

To paraphrase one of my favourite scenes from "Roseanne", from Becky to Darlene,, oh, school is too hard, my friends don't like me, well do something about it then you little wimp.... Oh no one understands you because you're so complex, well that's crap, you're just a whiny little basket case who's milking this depression thing for all it's worth.

The problem with this movie is I'm not really sure which sister should say it to which. In general it follows every cliched beat from the mother blaming herself so the daughter can tell her not to, onto the sister who didn't try and kill herself telling the one who did that her life ain't so great either and she's mad at her to her oh so smart daughter saying smartass things, oh but she cares too you know - oh yes, such tough love because its such a tough, uncompromising movie - as Becky said, well that's just crap.

The flashback scenes are pathetic, yeah, I know, they were sisters as kids too, I kind of figured so, though half the time I couldn't even figure out which was which and cared even less to find out. Is there even a scene between the suicidal sister and her mom? Or between the husband and wife? Window dressing at best, especially with the husband, no I'm sure he had no reason to care if she lived or died. And after she does die, having her character still show up is way late, very lazy and completely at odds with the so called tough realism this movie supposedly wants to show.

But what really bugs me about this movie is represented by the title All My Puny Sorrows. Now I know it's supposed to be ironic, take the big stuff and make it small and take the small stuff and make it big, I get it, because see, her sorrows aren't puny at all, or at least not supposed to be. But see, the real reason it's ironic is My. What I mean is supposedly it's about how caring and empathetic she is, but she's not, neither of them are, they are just two self pitying whiny basket cases who only care about themselves and their feelings.

This movie is all about picking sides with as many villains as any James Bond movie. Standard attack on the religious guy. Now I am far from religious myself but it is such an obvious and easy target. He goes to see her but god forbid, pardon the pun, it's treated as though out of generosity or caring, so much easier to just go for the religious judgemental stereotype. The guy in the garage, of course just some Neanderthal who cares only about his car, forget the fact he has a wife or kid. The lady with the extremist kid, presumably, well just another evil person who should be derided. And of course the lawyer boyfriend, how dare he describe her sister's suicide incorrectly and of course he would never even think of suicide himself, which by definition must make him, along with the rest a bunch of unfeeling, uncaring losers.

Yeah, well here's the response, they're not, its the two sisters who are. Because all they give a crap about is themselves and their own gigantic sorrows, at least to themselves. Because of course only they have feelings, only they have problems and only they care. Once again we'll that's just crap. Especially the lawyer guy, considering who he's seeing, I imagine he must know what it feels to want to kill himself. But the other cute examples she gives of people who would never even think of killing themselves, not arguing the truth of that, but you know what, I can think of a whole lot of other people for whom that's true, not least of which the person her father had an interesting talk about, you know who I'm talking about, only I mean the son and you better believe every one who happens to be on his side of the aisle. I have zero fear that any of them would try killing themselves, though if they did, I imagine they would fail anyway.

Sorry I digress. The simple fact is it is rather hard to feel empathetic towards people who have zero empathy for anyone they deem undesirable and who only seem to have empathy for themselves and their own crap sorrows. Long story short, I'm pretty sure we all have our own puny problems and sorrows, so all I can say for the people in this movie, yeah, have a nice life, long or short, I don't care, because none of it is my problem.

It's a modern drama based in East Village and Winnipeg, Manitoba, and Toronto, Ontario, about two sisters, one of whom is suicidal. It's an adaptation of Miriam Toews' 2014 novel of the same title.

In the movie's opening, we see the suicide of the two sisters' father, Jake Von Riesen (Donal Logue). We are introduced to Elf (Gabrielle Jennings/Sarah Gadon), an accomplished concert pianist who suffers from deep depression. She is married to Nic (Aly Mawji), a loving and devoted husband. Her sister, Yoli (Marin Almasi/Alison Pill), was a wild child who left a marriage after 16 years. She's in a loveless relationship with an uptight lawyer, Alex Finbar (Michael Musi), and has a bright but mouthy teenage daughter, Nora (Amybeth McNulty). Yoli is a novelist that has experienced limited success and won't tell anyone about her latest manuscript. And then there is Lottie, Elf's and Yoli's mother (Mare Winningham), who is a plain-spoken realist still rooted in her conservative Mennonite community.

The film primarily follows the relationship of the two sisters within the larger family structure, with flashbacks to earlier times that include their father. Throughout the film, Yoli struggles to extract hope from her sister, but Elf has too often seen hope in the morning transition to despair in the afternoon. Finally, the resolution has truth and reality etched within it.

This is a brilliantly sad movie. The humor that helps Yoli (and Miriam Toews) survive all that life throws at her is well embodied in the film. Lottie survives with less humor but a more profound sense of a reality that can leave the pain behind. Lottie's character seems unrealistic, but all I've heard about the "real" Lottie suggests the portrayal was accurate.

I really liked the novel when I read it; my only question about the film is whether viewers unfamiliar with the book might find the storyline somewhat confusing.