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IMDbPro

Wilby Wonderful

  • 2004
  • Not Rated
  • 1h 39m
IMDb RATING
6.6/10
1.6K
YOUR RATING
Wilby Wonderful (2004)
Trailer for Wilby Wonderful
Play trailer2:34
1 Video
4 Photos
ComedyDramaRomance

A day-in-the-life dark comedy concerning a group of islanders, their respective secrets, and one man's plan to kill himself quietly.A day-in-the-life dark comedy concerning a group of islanders, their respective secrets, and one man's plan to kill himself quietly.A day-in-the-life dark comedy concerning a group of islanders, their respective secrets, and one man's plan to kill himself quietly.

  • Director
    • Daniel MacIvor
  • Writer
    • Daniel MacIvor
  • Stars
    • James Allodi
    • Callum Keith Rennie
    • Elliot Page
  • See production, box office & company info
  • IMDb RATING
    6.6/10
    1.6K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Daniel MacIvor
    • Writer
      • Daniel MacIvor
    • Stars
      • James Allodi
      • Callum Keith Rennie
      • Elliot Page
    • 26User reviews
    • 17Critic reviews
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 2 wins & 6 nominations

    Videos1

    Wilby Wonderful
    Trailer 2:34
    Watch Wilby Wonderful

    Photos

    Wilby Wonderful (2004)
    Wilby Wonderful (2004)
    Sandra Oh and Elliot Page in Wilby Wonderful (2004)
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    Top cast

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    James Allodi
    James Allodi
    • Dan Jarvis
    Callum Keith Rennie
    Callum Keith Rennie
    • Duck MacDonald
    Elliot Page
    Elliot Page
    • Emily Anderson
    • (as Ellen Page)
    Rebecca Jenkins
    Rebecca Jenkins
    • Sandra Anderson
    Sandra Oh
    Sandra Oh
    • Carol French
    Paul Gross
    Paul Gross
    • Buddy French
    Marcella Grimaux
    Marcella Grimaux
    • Mackenzie Fisher
    Daniel MacIvor
    Daniel MacIvor
    • Stan Lastman
    Terri Sanderson
    • Reporter
    Chris Saunderson
    • Photographer
    Caleb Langille
    • Taylor
    Patrick Keeler
    Patrick Keeler
    • Stuart
    Maury Chaykin
    Maury Chaykin
    • Mayor Brent Fisher
    Chett Buchanan
    • Golfing Businessman #1
    Mike Goodfellow
    • Golfing Businessman #2
    Mary Ellen MacLean
    • Irene
    Ed Cayer
    • Lotto Man
    Devon Chisholm
    • Jennie
    • Director
      • Daniel MacIvor
    • Writer
      • Daniel MacIvor
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

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    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Paul Gross' two children Hannah and Jack Gross appear in the background of the movie.
    • Quotes

      Buddy French: I like Mark Twain. You know what else he said? "Faith is believing something you know isn't true."

    • Crazy credits
      Movie title is rolled out on a festival banner on a bridge.
    • Soundtracks
      Give Me The Chance To Fall
      Performed by Reg Vermue (as Gentleman Reg)

      Written by Reg Vermue

      Courtesy of Three Gut Records

    User reviews26

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    8/10
    Gay stigma, suicide, teen sex, public corruption, cheating, ambition: just life in your average small town
    This web-of-life drama with a dark comedic edge takes place in a small town on the fictional island of Wilby, somewhere off the coast of Nova Scotia. Here we get to know quite a few people, beginning with Dan Jarvis (James Allodi), a video store owner whose wife has just left him. His exquisite despair, agitation and dead serious suicidal impulses are occasioned not only by this loss but, more fundamentally, by the fact that he is being exposed, against his wishes, as a gay man, not a social status often sought in this tight little conservative village.

    Jarvis's forced "outing" is part of a more sweeping attack on regular gatherings of homosexuals and drug users at a waterfront park. Turns out that developers are behind the exposes. They're almost drooling in anticipation of establishing a destination golf club with surrounding upscale houses on the now public park land, once they succeed in convincing the townsfolk that the only sure way to keep unsavory characters from corrupting their young people and way of life is to get rid of that park, i.e., by selling it to them, and for a song at that.

    We also meet Buddy French (Paul Gross), a straight arrow local cop, and his tightly wound wife Carol (Sandra Oh), who has gotten herself into a chronic dither chasing brass rings in the world of real estate sales. Then there is Sandy Anderson (Rebecca Jenkins), the faded sex queen and mother of teenage daughter Emily (Ellen Page), whom Sandy worries will follow in her own pathetic footsteps.

    Rounding out the group of major players in this drama are Wilby's Mayor, Brent Fisher (Maury Chaykin), whose porcine joviality seems overdone, perhaps to cover less seemly activities, and the pivotal character Duck MacDonald (Callum Keith Rennie), an Everyman clad perpetually in overalls, whose gentle manner and near omnipresence suggest that he's a sort of guardian angel placed among these humans to bail them out of trouble. In smaller roles, there's also Irene (Mary Ellen MacLean), a first rate gossip, and Buddy's police partner, Stan (played by the film's writer-director, Daniel McIvor), whose conduct is sometimes nefarious.

    I take the trouble to mention all of these people because the film is really more a series of character sketches than a narrative, and because the acting is, with perhaps one exception, uniformly fine. For some viewers, the exception may be Sandra Oh's over-the-top frenzied behavior during much of the film, though certainly there are ambitious control freaks out there in the real world who carry on like she does. (Incidentally, the beauty of Ms. Oh's face is captured stunningly here by DP Rudolf Blahacek, especially in profile in a scene shot while she is driving.)

    Some viewers might also wonder whether James Allodi's compulsive suicidal behavior as the deeply suffering Dan Jarvis is also over the top. He keeps making good faith efforts to end his life that are thwarted, sometimes in ways that make you laugh even when your intentions are otherwise. In this darkly funny depiction, MacIvor seems to have borrowed from the drollery of Bud Cort's habitual suicidal poses in "Harold and Maude."

    We viewers can also easily see the pain in Jarvis's face and wonder how so many of the town citizens can fail to notice or respond to him. Fact is that in real life this is common. Often people are either too self absorbed or otherwise preoccupied to see pain in others. Or if they do, they gloss over it because they are too busy or are reluctant to intrude, to mind another person's business.

    The film offers a wonderful quote from Mark Twain, delivered by Buddy French to Mayor Fisher: "Golf: A good walk ruined." "Wilby" was produced not by Canada's National Film Board, the source of so many wonderful movies from that country, but jointly by the provincial film boards of Nova Scotia and Ontario. The location for the film is actually not an island at all, but rather the town of Shelburne, pop. 2,000, on the southwest coast of the Nova Scotian mainland.) "Wilby" is unlikely to get wide U. S. distribution, and that is unfortunate, because it's a little gem of a movie. My rating: 8/10 (B+). (Seen on 11/28/05). If you'd like to read more of my reviews, send me a message for directions to my websites.
    helpful•19
    4
    • roland-104
    • Dec 4, 2005

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • September 9, 2005 (Spain)
    • Country of origin
      • Canada
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Вилби Великолепный
    • Filming locations
      • Shelburne, Nova Scotia, Canada
    • Production companies
      • Mongrel Media
      • Palpable Productions
      • Da Da Kamera
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

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    • Budget
      • CA$2,500,000 (estimated)
    • Gross worldwide
      • $1,749
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

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    • Runtime
      1 hour 39 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby Digital
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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