Niagara Motel

"Niagara Motel" is a hard film to categorize. Its tone fluctuates wildly. Most of the characters have serious problems that for the most part are played straight and seriously but there are some scenes that suddenly turn to flaming black comedy. If you need characters to care about in a movie, they are a bit in short supply here, but there are exceptions. Caroline Dhavernas, in the role of an apparently squeaky clean waitress who is, surprisingly, considering joining the "adult entertainment" industry, is a joy to watch whenever she is on screen. British Actress Anna Friel brings some much needed feistiness to her role as a recovering young drug addict trying to get her child back from a bureaucratic Children's Aide social worker. And Wendy Crewson brings flashes of warmth when her character discovers the hooker next door is both more interesting and nicer than she had imagined.

I saw the movie on DVD. Be sure to watch the audio-commentary version and the other various features of the actors and director talking about the various characters after you've watched the main feature (only 88 minutes long). Clearly all the actors really loved their characters. I felt much better about the movie after I learned how the actual scenes developed in process.

Amusingly, the city of Niagara Falls (Canada) thought that the movie focused so much on the seediest aspects of the city that they refused to cooperate in its filming. So, the few outdoor scenes that were actually shot in Niagara Falls were shot surreptitiously from the back of a van.

Worth watching on DVD with all the extra features. "