Charming, low key and funny, this Canadian coming of age tale is told from the perspective of Mooney (Liane Balaban), a dreamy artistic 15 year old girl who yearns to escape from the confining environment of her small Cape Breton coal mining town (the time is the 1970s) and travel to New York to study art. The movie really picks up when the morose and inhibited Moonie makes friends with 16 year old Lou (Tara Spencer-Nairn), an outgoing and impulsive American who has moved to the town with her mother to escape a family scandal in the Bronx. Screenwriter Tricia Fish captures the little moments that make up small town life in vivid detail. The action unfolds in short, tightly edited scenes,like looking at snapshots in a family album. Just as a jazz musician leaves spaces in between notes director Allan Moyle uses pauses in between lines of dialogue to express unspoken feelings and emotions. Liane Balaban has the dark looks and watchful intelligence of a young Winona Ryder. The movie has a great sense of time and place. My favorite scene - Lou gazing at some hunky young Cape Breton hockey players with a carnivorous smile on her face while April Wine's 70s hit "I'm on Fire for You baby" plays on the soundtrack. The Bottom Line: You may suffer from culture shock at first but as you get to know and like the characters and adjust to the film's leisurely pace you should find yourself becoming emotionally involved and intrigued by the goings-on in this sleepy little town in the Canadian Maritimes.