- Oh wow, for once I’ve actually read the book the movie is based on! I actually really like this book despite the fact that sometimes Margaret Laurence is a little too visceral in her descriptions of old age, but the movie leaves a lot of that out (for better or for worse).
- The first few scenes of old!Hagar with Marvin and Doris where they’re arguing over a variety of things related to Hagar’s ailing health play like a bad high school theatre production with that same kind of weird over-enunciation and strange pausing that’s supposed to heighten drama but just makes everything feel stilted. I’ve decided I’m not a fan of Dylan Baker, who gave a similarly fake performance as Max’s cranky, conservative father in Across The Universe. You feel like he’s almost doing it to mock the whole production.
- Ellen Burstyn was actually pretty phenomenal in this, to be completely honest. I’ve seen enough geriatric-centric movies in the last little while to get a good grip on how old age is portrayed on screen and I feel like she’s been the most accurate thus far. She really could be your crochety old grandma.
- One of the things I don’t think they got across strongly enough was Hagar’s obsession with social class. It’s definitely present in the film, but they kind of skim along the surface of it and touch upon it only as a highlight to what else is going on in the scene. The moment when she realises she’s selling eggs to Lottie is this huge table-turning moment in the book but comes across as a slight irritation and inconvenience on screen, partially because there wasn’t enough class distinction in the brief scenes of Hagar’s childhood. We are told that Lottie’s a bastard and that’s why Hagar isn’t supposed to talk to her, but we’re given the impression that she’s a bitch to Telford Simmons for no real reason instead of there being much exposition on her family vs. his family in the grand scheme of social strata in Manawaka. I mean, I know, it’s a movie so they can’t keep everything in, but this was something I’ve always felt was really quite central to Hagar’s character that I think they could have played up on it a bit more, especially since it plays a huge part in her relationship with Bram.
- Ellen Page is in this movie for probably a total of three minutes. Clearly her being billed fourth in the credits is a post-Juno decision.
- I should have known this would happen after Hagar tried to get Telford Simmons to finger her in his parents’ Basement of Embalming, but the scene where Hagar and Bram first have sex is played like any other first-time sex scene in a movie. This annoys me because I’ve always found that to be the most horrifying yet simultaneously hilarious scene in the book because Hagar has no idea what sex is and so when Bram tries to sleep with her on their wedding night, she is completely aghast and confused and it’s this really, really shocking moment for her. This whole Telford-grabs-Hagar’s-crotch thing gives her both foreknowledge of sex and, more importantly since she’s the instigator, sexual intent long before she’s supposed to know what’s going on.
- I kind of wish there were more home grown Canadian actors in this, the ones who you see in movies where Toronto stands in for Chicago or New York and you know the minute you see them that the movie was definitely made in Toronto. Like that guy from the Cheese Whiz commercials from six or seven years ago. That guy. He should have been in this.
The Stone Angel
As boomers get older, I suspect we’ll see even more movies like this to satisfy their need to see themselves on screen. Yay.
IMDB Plot Synopsis Getting old isn't for sissies! The witty, irascible and fiercely proud Hagar Shipley escapes from home when her son Marvin and daughter in law Doris tell her she must move into nursing care. She sets out on a preposterous journey in search of a way to reconcile herself to her tumultuous past.