Strangers in Good Company (1990) User Reviews

Blew me away! Totally Amazing!

[mikehamilton · 9/10 · 23 May 2001]

If you're looking for flashy, special effects, don't touch this one at the video store. If you're looking for a film to move you, touch you, and leave you forever changed, grab this one and run home to put it in the VCR (couldn't find it on DVD). This movie totally blew me away. The "actresses" are unbelievably real and true to their persons. I love film making like this.

The "realness" and the natural beauty of this film will stay with you long after the final scene. Superb casting of these fine women. Beautiful scenery. Wonderful interaction. I can't say enough great things about this wonderful film! I loved it! Rent it when you want to feel good about life...........

Improv Perfection

[Spuzzlightyear · 9/10 · 3 July 2005]

You know, improv in a movie can either work beautifully, or fall spectacularly. I am truly astounded at a movie such as "Company Of Strangers" with a company of seniors that have very little or no acting experience just NAILING their marks in this wonderfully simple story about a group of old people (or, as the director has stated, a group of people that happen to be old) whose bus breaks down on their way to the meeting, and take refuge in a on their way to the meeting, and take refuge in a run down country house. While they are waiting for their bus to get fixed, they sit down and talk with each other about each other, their lives , loves and tribulations. AND THAT'S THE WHOLE MOVIE!! Does it work? You bet it does. Each of these characters are just so interesting and so human like. Well, they must be, as the director, Cynthia Roberts just essentially took stories from their lives and weaved it into the story, thus you have the wonderful lesbian story, the tragic story of one of the women losing their son, and how one's calling as a nun affected her later life. These are all wonderful stories, and the ladies reactions to each other's tales just is amazing. This is really a remarkable movie, you probably haven't seen anything like this, so do yourself a favor and do.

Commendable portrayal of often ignored subjects. (spoilers)

[vertigo_14 · 8/10 · 1 March 2006]

'Strangers in Good Company' is an odd sort of film, precisely because of the honesty of its subjects who, other than playing their allotted stereotypical roles in our collective pop culture, are routinely ignored in film or television portrayal. Even the idiotic 'Something's Gotta Give' seemed to have such a hard time with 60 year-old characters and more so, with their relationship. Films like 'Strangers in Good Company,' on the other hand (this one being largely improvised by its cast of elderly female characters stranded in the Canadian countryside when their bus breaks down), and others like 84 Charing Cross Road, or similar films, actually give the audience a very touching, though sometimes sad, portrayal.

Here, these women, on their way to one older woman's childhood home, become good friends as they hole up in what looks like an abandoned Canadian country home, roughing it for a few days while they try to find help. In the company of each other, they develop a friendship, and learn a bit about each other's lives as the days pass. Some of them memorable, interesting tales of the women's lives (see the trivia, most of what is told is pulled from their background) and some, very sad recollections and future perceptions such as the woman who's greatest fear was being destitute and left alone with no one to care for her. It is less a story of survival in the countryside and more of a tapestry of lives being told here and there. Some of the improvisation is evident as some of the actresses seem either unsure or uncomfortable with what is going on sometimes. But nonetheless, this low-budget picture actually turned out to be a nice little underrated film about something we don't always get to see or hear.

Funny, Melancholy, Fascinating, Charming and Totally Genuine

[Doghouse-6 · 12 January 2004]

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.

Absolutely delightful.

[pterrio · 10/10 · 23 April 2002]

Older women, such as those portrayed in this movie, seem to possess the ability to look at life through eyes that ring true. That is, their laughter seems more real, their tears more purposeful and deserving. And, their ability to enjoy the wonders of nature is priceless and rewarding to those that get to observe their observations of life.

I loved each and every character in this wonderful story.

One of my top ten movies

[defort · 10/10 · 11 January 2003]

A superb movie dealing with life, the interplay of human strengths and weakness, and growing older. The movie uses non-professional actors playing themselves, and is wonderfully refreshing, thought provoking and moving. I give this movie a high recommendation.

The most beautiful film I ever saw

[romyrock · 10/10 · 15 September 2000]

I have always found the lives of women to be more interesting than that of men. They are emotionally stronger, have more depth. And this film confirms my belief. I wish I each of the women were my personal friend. It's hard to believe they are all first time actors. They are all so natural. Constance conveyed more with her silence than any actor I have seen on screen with a million words. A beautifully made film. Terrific photography of the Canadian countryside, haunting music, superb acting. The film's more like a documentary. I wish there were more personal information on the Net on each of the actors, including their addresses so I could write and tell them how much they have touched my life through this film. Thank you everyone who was involved in the making of "Strangers In Good Company".

A wonderful experience.

[bardgirll · 10/10 · 7 October 2002]

This is a wonderfully worthwhile film. Anyone interested in the lives of women should watch this. The story was entertaining and yet in the true definition of the word art I found myself reflecting on my own life while watching it.

Dealing With Problems

[boblipton · 7/10 · 17 September 2020]

A busload of old ladies gets stranded in the middle of nowhere. While they figure out what to do, they also tell each other who they are.

Ye,s it's got a plot, one as old as the Anabasis, even if no one shouts out "The sea! The sea!" They're stranded near a lake, which cinematographer David de Volpi delights in shooting through the mist. Even the women's stories are rather low-keyed. If you're looking for some high drama, maybe a life-and-death situation, there's none of this here, just some people who have spent their lives dealing with the problems of everyday life dealing with another.

In the midst of these quiet performances, none of the actors stands out, even though they are all clearly individuals.

Wonderful movie.

[msjeep1 · 10/10 · 15 February 2008]

This is a quiet film, and it is beautifully photographed. The character sketches are marvelously drawn, and could easily be from real life. The inner beauty and serenity of each, rather plain and ordinary, woman is illuminated, but not forced on the viewer. This movie will be as valid and gorgeous in thirty, or even fifty, years as it is now.

Unlike many contemporary movies, this one has no car chases (the one vehicle doesn't even work well), explosions, or violence of any kind. The only gimmick for pulling in the viewer is the believability of each scene. I could have been there, and would have enjoyed each individual and each conversation. It was necessary that the ladies be rescued from their predicament, but it was hard to part company with them. My only consolation, until more movies like this are made, is that I own a copy and can watch it as often as I wish.

Needed an explosion or two

[wandereramor · 6/10 · 18 September 2011]

I really wanted to like this movie, to the extent that I'm feeling a little guilty that I didn't, and worrying it might have just been because I was watching it sleep-deprived and hence was not really the best reviewer. But I'll give it a shot anyway.

The Company of Strangers is a gentle, almost plot less docu-drama which strands seven old women and their bus driver in the countryside and simply allows them to interact. The characters are all played by non-actors who mostly describe their own, real-world lives. In this respect it's an incredibly important document, capturing the voices of a class of the population that is often overlooked. It may be worth watching for this element alone, as a capturing of both the present status of the old and their younger lives in an era gone by.

At the same time, I found it hard to pay attention to, which I think was due only in part to my sleep-deprived state. There's not really any visual element to grab your attention: the screen is a gray morass and the directing is bog-standard, ignoring a central aspect of film. I feel bad criticizing them for this, but of the women only one (I think her name was Cissy, although there's no real conventional introduction to the characters) had any real screen presence or personality. Although it may not be a true documentary, it suffers from the same flaws as a lot of documentaries: a focus on conveying information and message and ignoring the artistic possibilities of the film medium.

Maybe this is in fact a brilliant movie and I'm just too much of a short-attention-span lout to grasp this. But I'm going to have to give it the same response I give a lot of docs: valuable in many ways, but not really engaging as cinema.

the alternative 'Lord of the Flies'

[annestw · 10/10 · 26 October 2008]

This mysterious story - a group of elderly women who don't know each other appear out of the mist, tell their life stories to each other then fade into the mist again - is told with with humour, compassion and huge respect for the women as they set about making the best of their predicament in a mutually co-operative and tolerant manner.

The devising, filming and editing alone would make this an outstanding movie, but the depiction of an 'invisible' part of our society and its strengths makes it an important document. It is also a political statement that contrasts the cold, autocratic style of the boys' society in Golding's book with the warm, co-operative community of the old women. I would also recommend Mary Meig's book 'In the Company of Strangers' on the fascinating way the film was put together.

strangers in good company

[mossgrymk · 6/10 · 3 October 2020]

Nothing wrong with this sweet, gentle film, featuring sweet, gentle people that a little conflict or tension wouldn't cure. Not that I'm looking for a Canadian "Deliverance", mind you, just that watching good folks getting along with each other in the wilds for two hours can get kinda, well, dull. Fortunately, the acting and the writing, which apparently was largely improvised by the non professional cast, is good (credit director Cynthia Scott for this, as well), and so I hung in for most of it. Give it a B minus.

you won't guilt me into liking this movie

[obliv326 · 2/10 · 7 October 2010]

have you noticed that the reviews for this movie talk about what it ISN'T? for example, it is NOT about special effects, or action, or crime, etc? This is really unnecessary if there was something striking about what the film IS. In this particular instance, it is about several older women and a day they decide to take a bus somewhere... it's been a while since I saw it, so I can't remember every detail. but i probably wouldn't have been able to tell you afterwards either. Because what happens is inconsequential to the fact that, as the movie practically screams, IT'S NOT ABOUT WHAT HAPPENS!!!! IT'S ABOUT THESE PEOPLE, AND HOW THEY ARE SOMETHING UNUSUAL ON SCREEN SO THAT MUST MEAN THIS FILM IS SUPERIOR!!!!

Rule one of screen writing is that conflict equals drama. There is no conflict in this film, and therefore no drama, and essentially no story... and, apparently, no screenplay ether, since this film is AD-LIBBED, WITH THESE WOMEN TELLING YOU STORIES FROM THEIR LONG, SOULFUL, INTERESTING LIVES!!!!

Look, there is nothing wrong with watching a film about eight old ladies taking a day trip. I'm sure they are nice ladies, and I hope they had a great old time making the film, and frankly, there might be an audience for listening to old women tell their stories. I'm sure they have lots of lessons to impart an wisdom to pass down.

My biggest issue is the way the people promoting this film take a superior position regarding even the most meager expectations of what they deem 'typical' audiences. if you don't like this movie, they imply, then you are a mindless cretin who must have every single second of screen time filled with a gun battle or explosion to appreciate something that stimulates an organ NOT in you pants. Well, I love films, of all kinds, an I am more than willing to check out unusual fare at the local art house or video store. I didn't like this film because I didn't find these women to be all that interesting. Of course, this will subject me to all manner of ad hominem attacks, pre-supposing that I must only be able to tolerate gunplay and fart jokes, like every OTHER person without the intelligence and "patience" for this film.

Sorry. I have nothing against character studies that build slowly. I have nothing against low key dramas. But the films I like DO need something that makes them interesting. If its not going to b a strong narrative, then something else... unique visual style, or something.

ALL this film gives you is atypical protagonists, and a superior attitude about its subject matter. It's like one of those bad documentaries that assumes its subject alone makes it worthy of your attention and support. Maybe I should care about a bad neighborhood revitalized by a garden, or the plight of migrant sweet potato farmers. But if the documentary about those things is boring and pretentious, then I am under no obligation to claim I like the film because it is about something that affects people lives.

Sure, these are, as I said before, nice old women. And maybe we should pay more attention to them in society. But making a boring, chore of a movie not only does nothing to boost that cause, but not liking it does not make me a thick headed dolt. It i not a zero sum game, and my finding fault with this inert blob of a movie says nothing about my tolerance for social issues or my preference for films.

Bottom line... this film was boring. It was a chore, and never engaged me, or tried to, even one time. You will either want to hear what these people say, and find it fascinating, or you won't.And if you don't, then the film has nothing for you. And apparently the people pushing it know that, as they almost immediately start with the guilt trips. Read the positive reviews. See how many don't try and goad you into liking it because they say NOT liking it says something about you. It doesn't. A film has to live as a film. Hey, I didn't like Pearl Harbor, but that says nothing about my feelings for WWII vets. Likewise, not liking 'Strangers in Good Company' says nothing about me, other than I don't like boring movies. And it is boring.

Wistful, Contemplative, Funny, Wonderful

[drednm · 8 July 2012]

This charming film about a stranded busload of older women in rural Canada is mostly improvised with non-professional actresses. Yet we get to know each of the women, their pasts, their strengths, their hopes.

After their bus breaks down, the 7 older Canadian women and the younger bus driver (who sprains her ankle) wander down the road til they find a derelict house on a lake. It's an odd assortment of women who seem to have little in common, yet they find (and so do we) that our connections to one another always outweigh our differences.

Alice is a Mohawk Indian, Cissy, Beth, and Winnie are from England, Mary is from the USA, Constance was brought to Canada as a child, Catherine is a Canadian nun. Michelle is the bus driver. The women set to work exploring the house, finding food, making beds, etc. As the women work, they tell the stories of their lives. But they also discover their connections to nature.

Seemingly, the women have had ordinary lives with husbands, children, jobs, illnesses, losses. At various points in the film as each woman is telling her story, we are shown a small gallery of photos from her life. It's very moving to see the old woman telling her story while her youth passes before us in vintage photos.

There are many funny moments as the women try to fish, catch frogs, pick berries, or play. Most of the women settle into their temporary world quite well. A couple remain mostly outside the group.

What the film ultimately shows us is that even in old age, we can learn, experience new things, enjoy friendships, and even find joy in old age.

This is a remarkable film.

Enchanted with this movie.

[kingmiller-1 · 10/10 · 9 November 2006]

I picked this movie up at the library out of curiosity, and found it to be one of the most entertaining movies I have ever seen. I was there with those women, part of their group, and worried about them more than they did themselves. How were they going to get the bus working, so they could go on back to their lives? For some years, I exercised my memory by seeing if I could remember all the women's names. When I found I was forgetting some of them, I checked the video out again, and found it was still just as enchanting as it was the first time I watched it. I'd love to see a documentary on the making of this movie. It's unbelievable how companionable these strangers became during their time together. They opened up their lives to each other, and shared things that they probably would never have mentioned in another situation. I wonder what their lives have become in the years since the movie was made. Have they stayed in touch? I'd love to know.

A tiny slice of reality

[clehoullier · 8/10 · 19 November 2009]

Frankly, I am surprised to see that only a few reviewers didn't appreciate or get this lovely hidden gem of a movie. Thankfully, the Netflix algorithm found it for us. Anyone who favors the constant action/minimal dialog/maximum special effects types of movies like the Bourne sequels will not enjoy this movie. Nothing really happens, but nothing really needs to happen to allow for the sharing of lives of strangers, who become familiar by the end of a movie. My wife and I each were reminded of our grandmothers with two of the characters. Life takes place in the living of long lives, and the joys and pains that come with it. And in this movie we get to hear about such small - and very huge - things in the lives of these women. This movie is a treasure that rewards the patience it takes to let it unwind and draw you in...if you let it.

Women are enviable

[shi612 · 8/10 · 1 December 2013]

A bus with 7 elderly women runs through the woods. They are comfortably singing together in the bus. What kind of group of the 7 women is, and where they are going to are not explained. The movie title says they are strangers, though the bus does not look a route bus. Anyhow, as the bus has an engine trouble, 8 women - the elderly women and a young driver – have to stay an abandoned house they found in the woods for several days. According to the brochure attached to my DVD, all women but the driver do not have acting experience. Although the situation is a fiction, every woman acts by her real name. The old day pictures of each woman may be her real ones. Therefore, this movie tries to show how the 7 elderly women behave in a fictional situation to wait for a rescue at an abandoned house in the woods. They soon eat up the foods they had. From the day 2, they only eat frogs, raspberries and fish. Yet they are quite alive and happy. They are left out of mobile phone network, but they enjoy bird watching, drawing, replacing a wig by a scarf, chatting about past life. The most impressing woman for me is Catherine, a nun. She wears as an ordinary woman. She could be a sacred music teacher. She challenges all day to fix the bus. Then she catches frogs to eat. In spite of rheumatism, she never staggers at the situation, and she does her best for the people, still she never forgets smiling. Anyhow, if they were men, it would be much less interesting story. I envy women.

beautiful in every way; not a misstep in the film

[veeckasinwreck · 10/10 · 20 August 2011]

To begin, the craft in making this film is extraordinary. Every camera shot is purposeful and arresting. The lighting is magical. The music is gorgeous and perfect; the Schubert excerpts are heartbreakingly beautiful. The natural setting is miraculous. The women in the cast are completely natural, unaffected, and suck you into their lives. You grow to love them all, and care intensely about them. You feel for their pain, but they have far too much dignity to be mere objects of pity. The sheer humanity of this modest little film is overpowering. I saw it when it first came out, and just saw it again on NetFlix, maybe 20 years later. If anything, the experience of watching it the second time was even richer. One of the three or four most affecting films I have ever seen.

A Study on Outlook

[blissey_s · 7/10 · 8 November 2023]

From the outset it did not appear that these women would be able to captivate my attention for a whole 90 minutes, but I stand corrected.

The isolated location and circumstances brought about very intimate moments between the women. We learn about their pasts, their folleys, their triumphs, their outlooks and their dreams. We appreciate them in their most vulnerable state and each of their unique and individual stories is moving especially with the aid of photos from their past.

They all have such distinct outlooks on life. It is so interesting to watch how each of them deals with the experience of being in a life threatening situation and interact with women who have an opposite or conflicting attitude about life. Some of them seem to give up. Some of them seem to be in a rut. Some of them are relentlessly optimistic. Some of them want to create laughter and cheer despite the dire situation.

It's in these moments that we can look at these women and compare our own outlooks to theirs. How would we behave in such a circumstance? It seems that being stranded in the wilderness was a test of their fortitude and belief systems. A despairing situation quickly turned into a creative opportunity to turn lead into gold. Look at what they were able to accomplish.

They caught fish, wild mushrooms, frogs. Took part in aerobic group exercise. Practiced their art skills. Exchanged personal stories. Went swimming. Admired nature. Reflected on the past. They accomplished so much more than they thought they could, and ultimately the nun was able to send for help and rescue them all because she believed in her ability to do so.

What seemed like the worst experience of their life turned into one of the best things that ever happened to them, and such is life. It is through these dire moments that true transformation occurs.

Entertaining, wise, and full of humanity

[howard.schumann · 9/10 · 20 November 2014]

Big budgets, special effects, name actors are not required to produce a film that is entertaining, wise, and full of humanity. If you doubt that, I invite you to see Cynthia Scott's 1990 film The Company of Strangers (aka Strangers in Good Company), produced by the National Film Board of Canada. Seven non-professional actresses share stories about their past, their fears, and their hopes in a deserted farmhouse after their tour bus breaks down in an isolated rural area of Quebec. While there is a screenplay, written by the late Gloria Demers, the dialogue is mostly improvised and the actresses talk about real events in their lives, the things that have meaning to them.

In a setting of rare natural beauty near Mont Tremblant, photographed by David de Volpi, the women do whatever it takes to stay alive until help comes. They dance, sing, play cards, exercise, and survive by eating frog legs, mushrooms, strawberries and the fish they catch with an improvised net. Catherine (Catherine Roche), a high-spirited nun tries to fix the bus, but eventually has to give up and walk twenty miles on feet wrecked by arthritis to seek help. Another energetic presence is Michelle (Michelle Sweeney), the young bus driver who twists her ankle and cannot get around very well to help out. While we do not learn much about her life, she keeps up the spirits of the group with her ingratiating personality and powerful singing voice.

The women turn to Alice (Alice Diabo), a Mohawk Indian whose techniques learned from her grandmother, help in the healing process. The group is complemented by Mary (Mary Meigs), a watercolor painter and self-described lesbian, Winnie (Winifred Holden), a dancer and born comedian, and Cissy (Cissy Meddings), an English immigrant who is a stroke survivor with a buoyant spirit. Not all, however, are full of joy, especially the 92-year-old Constance ( Constance Garneau) who is no longer able to hear the song of a sparrow and thinks that this would be a good place to die.

There is also Beth (Beth Webber), a still attractive 80-year-old who buttons her collar all the way up to the top, wears a wig, and still mourns for her son who died at an young age. Even if the characters may seem pre-selected for their balance The Company of Strangers is an intimate film that feels completely genuine and the conversations about love and loss, religion and death, family and marriage ring true. As the women talk about their lives, the director intersperses photographs of the women as children, teenagers, and adults. Though an inevitable sadness comes up, the inner strength of the women keep the mood from turning dark and allows us to reflect on our own life, its joys and its sorrows.

A glimpse into marginalized lives

[maryszd · 9/10 · 14 June 2010]

This lovely film about a group of elderly women stranded at a decrepit house in the country gives unusual cinematic attention to their thoughts and feelings. We rarely see women of this age on film for any extended length of time, which gives it an intrinsic novelty. These are women from a modest and self-effacing generation; no doubt if a similar film were made ten years from now about a group of Boomer-aged women stranded, it would be much different! The women in this film have been brought up to expect little and be satisfied with humble pleasures. The way they patiently wait and amiably pass the time until they are rescued will die with their generation. The women confess their small pleasures, sorrows and anxieties with each other and give each other gentle sympathy. I was sorry when the film ended and the women vanished into the fog at the end. The fog (which is also present at the beginning of the film) could stand for not only their closeness to death, but also for their cultural invisibility.

My only complaint about this film was about the subtitles. It would have been nice to have watched the film in French with English subtitles.

This is the true story of 8 strangers.

[mozart182 · 1/10 · 15 October 2003]

Currently, when we turn the television on, we are besieged by reality TV. Every night, somewhere on the dial, you can find something that will show us how someone else is choosing to live their lives in artificial circumstances. For the most part, these shows are worthless displays of self-indulgence giving people a chance to gain their 15 minutes of fame in exchange for any self-respect they once had. But before The Bachelor, before Survivor, and even before MTV pioneered the concept with The Real World, someone had the bright idea of taking 8 women, stranding them in the middle of nowhere, turning on the cameras and seeing what happened. Like most reality TV of the early 2000's, it was a pure waste of time and effort.

I find it interesting to see all the other comments which discuss the wonderful performances in this movie. These weren't performances, they were just women being themselves. And that, in a nutshell, is why this movie just doesn't work. There's no plot, and no moral to the story, just a few women talking about things. Okay, so we get to see them taking delight in accomplishing little tasks. But I really spend my time wondering what it is the filmmaker's were trying to accomplish, and I continually return to one thing - this movie is among one of the first efforts at reality entertainment. At least when watching reality TV, we can take the time to laugh at the people as they make fools of themselves, no matter how pointless the tasks they are trying to accomplish. Watching Strangers in Good Company, you spend your time cursing at the bus and wishing it would just start so we can all go home.

Tea for eight.

[percy-10 · 4 June 1999]

This film will ring true to those of us who spent childhood afternoons with batty maiden aunts. Though batty maiden aunts vary in personality, temperament, and social skills you're sure to find one that is familiar because you have a whole busload to choose from. This beautifully shot and laconically paced film is sort of a rambling walk through the pasts of a group of older women from various backgrounds who get temporarily stranded in an isolated spot in Canada. Though the personalities of the characters are a little as-to-be-expected, the acting is guileless and the dialogue completely natural. Prepare to have your curiosity peaked about medicinal herbs, pornographic boot jacks, and the hunting habits of Cissy's cat. The only device I found a little annoying was the stopping of the action to show off old photos from the women's lives. It bothered me at the time, but looking back I understand what they were trying to do and even feel a little nostalgic about it; which, of course, is utterly appropriate. It's definitely off the beaten track, not either as flamboyant or banal as art films are want to be. But, In Good Company is definitely a well made piece worthy of a larger audience.

Uplifting, and a joy to watch

[arlene-gambill · 10/10 · 16 September 2020]

Touché a pleasant way to spend a Covid day Have to wholeheartedly agree this 30 year old movie is a "timeless classic." Considering the times we are all experiencing today it serves as an excellent choice to settle us all down and THINK about where we've been in our own Lives and where we are going with the time we have left.