TIFF may be cooling down, but the Canadian talent keeps on coming with A Beginner's Guide To Endings leading the way into the film festival’s final weekend.
Written and directed by Canadian Jonathan Sobol, the dysfunctional family comedy A Beginner’s Guide To Endings sees a long time gambling-addicted father (Harvey Keitel) tell his three adult sons via-will that they wont have long to live due to medical experiments performed on them as children. Cal (Scott Cann), Jacob (Paulo Costanzo), and Nuts (Jason Jones) each reassess their life, with the hopes of spending their remaining days making amends for the mistakes they made growing up.
Set in Niagara Falls, Sobol aimed to give the film a Canadian touch right from the get go. “When I first conceived this project I was kind of building a world of Niagara Falls that I remembered as a young boy,” Sobol remarked. “It was nice to try and grab those elements that I missed so much from my childhood and integrate them into the script.”
Alongside the local setting, Canadian actress Tricia Helfer makes a memorable turn as the slightly unstable, tattooed love-interest Miranda. “When I first read the script, I loved the character of Miranda immediately,” she said. “Miranda is definitely part of my Harley riding; dangerous side and I’ve never had the chance to play that before.”
Daily Show correspondent, and fellow Canuck Jason Jones furthers the home-town pride with a show-stealing performance as the hard-headed boxer with a heart of gold, Nuts. "Jason is probably one of the funniest comedians alive right now," director Sobol remarked.
Sobol, who’s career as a writer includes previous TIFF favourite Citizen Duane, describes his latest work as a personal project, and said it’s, “not autobiographical, however it’s drawn from people that I’ve met in my life and certain relatives that we all have and wish to have and hope never to have.”
A Beginner's Guide to Endings is set to make its TIFF 2010 premiere Sept.17 at Roy Thomson Hall.