Teenaged hockey hopeful Ben Spektor has a lot going on: his team’s
playoff run, the Oilers’ Stanley Cup final against the Bruins on TV,
the Bob Dylan show at Ontario Place and finals at school. It’s the
Victoria Day weekend, 1988. David Bezmogis, the acclaimed author of
Natasha and Other Stories, turns to film and tells a memorable
story about the fleeting, beloved things of late boyhood. There are
intangible things lost: for one, a youthful freedom, a lack of
responsibility when faced with a moral dilemma. (One of Ben’s teammates
has gone missing following the Dylan show.) Mark Rendall plays Ben
perfectly, giving him the requisite quietness and uncertainty, as he
struggles to respond to the disappearance and to comfort his teammate’s
sister Cayla (Holly Deveaux). They have a halting, awkward
romance—every moment believable—set against banal, bucolic streets
of suburban Toronto, which Bezmogis lets speak for themselves. This is
a thoughtful and entertaining film.
This article appears in Oct 15-21, 2009.