A sister tries to persuade a sibling that her life is worth living.
Late in the often dour family drama “All My Puny Sorrows,” adapted from a book of the same name by Miriam Toews, Yoli (Alison Pill) asks her mother, Lottie (Mare Winningham), if she’s heard of the poet Fernando Pessoa. After a moment’s consideration, Yoli, a writer herself, remarks that the poet killed himself. Lottie replies from over her tabletop puzzle, “Oh brother, who hasn’t?”
It’s a droll little joke for a film in which self-destruction is common enough to be referenced lightly.
The movie follows Yoli; Lottie; and Yoli’s sister, the concert pianist Elf (Sarah Gadon). When the story begins, Elf, has just attempted to end her own life. Yoli visits Elf in the hospital, where she is recovering, and the pair face off in arguments about what should happen after Elf’s release. Supported by a stoic Lottie, Yoli wants to convince Elf that her life is worth living. Elf wants Yoli to take her to Switzerland, so she can legally pursue assisted suicide.
This is a family, and by extension a film, that seriously contemplates suicide — and what is felt by the loved ones they leave behind. The director Michael McGowan allows their gray Canadian malaise to extend into wan cinematography and drab scenery. The washed-out images leave the characters little opportunity for expression outside their words, and the dialogue is sometimes stilted and overly literary.
What’s fortunate then for this chamber drama is the commitment shown by Pill, Gadon and Winningham as the struggling family at the film’s heart. The ensemble builds believable chemistry as intimate family members, and when their characters deliver their arguments for life or death, the stakes feel appropriately high.
All My Puny Sorrows
Rated R for language and references to sex and suicide. Running time: 1 hour 43 minutes. Rent or buy on Apple TV, Google Play and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators.
Source: Movies - nytimes.com
