Strangers in Good Company (1990)

User Rating:

7.7/10   

Director:

Cynthia Scott

Writers:

Sally Bochner (writer)
Gloria Demers (writer)

Release Date:

3 May 1991 (UK)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Sometimes the middle of nowhere can lead to the most beautiful of places.

Plot:

A busload of women become stranded in an isolated part of the Canadian countryside. As they await rescue, they reflect on their lives through a mostly ad-libbed script.

Plot Keywords:

Stranded | Frog | Fishing | Senior Citizen | Nun

Awards:

4 wins & 5 nominations

Cast

Alice Diabo	...	Alice
Constance Garneau	...	Constance
Winifred Holden	...	Winnie
Cissy Meddings	...	Cissy
Mary Meigs	...	Mary
Catherine Roche	...	Catherine
Michelle Sweeney	...	Michelle
Beth Webber	...	Beth

Also Known As:

Le fabuleux gang des sept (Canada: French title)
The Company of Strangers

Runtime:

101 min

Country:

Canada

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Australia:M | Sweden:Btl | USA:PG

Filming Locations:

Québec, Canada

Company:

Bedford Entertainment

Trivia:

This movie was mostly ad-libbed by the women, all talking about their real lives.

Funny, Melancholy, Fascinating, Charming and Totally Genuine

I don't know where you'll ever find another film quite like STRANGERS IN GOOD COMPANY (or The Company Of Strangers, as the title appears on the DVD). If you want more from a movie than action, special effects and cliche situations and characters, are willing to be just a bit patient (as life sometimes requires) and, most importantly, understand that every human being is interesting in their own way and has their own story to tell, this film will reward you generously.

Eight women - all senior citizens, except for the driver - are on a small bus traveling through the Canadian countryside. We don't know who they are, or where they're going (though the production notes on the DVD explain it), except that they're making a small detour to see the lakeside cottage at which one of them spent summers in her youth, when the bus breaks down and strands them.

As they set about dealing with their predicament, we come to know these women, and learn that each is a survivor of one or more cruel blows: major calamities such as the Blitz, a bad marriage or the death of a child, or the more quiet calamity of illness and the alienation that can come with old age. To put it another way: life. Mind you, these are not tragic, "damaged" people; it's just that they've experienced the range of ups and downs that any full life contains, and therefore assess their situation as not much more than a temporary inconvenience, coping with it in the most practical of manners: attempting to repair the bus, seeking shelter and food, making sleeping arrangements and, yes, even entertaining themselves and each other, until help can arrive or be found.

In the purest sense, this film is about surviving, and living, which can often be two different things. If there is a "message" here, it's embodied in the moment when several of the women gather on the porch of the abandoned house in which they've taken refuge and, both as a call to anyone who might be within earshot, and as a personal affirmation, shout into the wilderness, "We're here....we're alive!"

The characters and their interaction are so genuine and moving, the effect is almost startling. In the midst of idle chit-chat during a mundane task such as picking berries, long-harbored and deeply felt pain can be revealed and shared and, within moments, the small talk is resumed. This is, of course, not the way such things are handled in major studio movies, but it is the way they often happen in real life, and this - along with the 110% believability of the performances - is what gives these scenes their power.

Both the film and the characters are at once open yet enigmatic. This is not the geriatric version of The Big Chill; questions are left unanswered and issues remain unresolved. Without standard contrived crises and manufactured conflict, what this film delivers is so fascinating simply because it's so real. If you possess even half a brain and an ounce of sensitivity, I can't imagine your finding this group of women anything but the very best of good company.