Ed's Review Dot Com

Mulmur Feed Co. Production, Mulmur Feed Company,

James Cromwell, Geneviève Bujold, Campbell Scott, Julie Stewart, Rick Roberts, George R. Robertson, Barbara Gordon, Jonathan Potts, Zachary Bennett

Craig Morrison (James Cromwell) and his wife Irene (Genevieve Bujold) have lived decades in a small seacoast town in New Brunswick, Canada. He loves baseball, fishing, farming, and lumbering, not to mention that he was taught building by his father from the time he was a child. Irene is starting to show signs of dementia and the onset of Alzheimer’s. She’s getting really forgetful, and the things she does is getting dangerous to herself and others. When she falls down the stairs of their two story farm house, Craig has had enough, and decides to make some lumber in his mill, and build a brand new small one story house on their property. With only a vision in mind, and a lifetime of building experience he sets out to build a new home for them, but he is convinced that he needs a permit, which needs plans in advance to be checked by the town building committee. Craig’s children want them to go after more standard care for the elderly in an assisted living situation, but Craig is set on his plan to live at home. Though he can build a house far superior to the requirements, Craig is pushed to the limit by this over zealous building inspector until the government is ready to bulldoze his home and he finds himself in court.

I was deeply touched by this movie. It was such a stunning performance by all the actors in this little story. First of all, it is based on real life events. The real Craig Morrison recently passed away in New Brunswick. [Click here for his obituary.] James Cromwell will never be honored with an academy award for a small Canadian film, but he certainly deserves that recognition. The battle here is against government regulations to protect the stupid against a man’s right to do what he wants on his own property. Obviously the government bureaucracy is in it to protect their positions, so things like this can happen, but this is a wonderful love story, family story, and personal rights story. The entire thing was excellently made, and this is the kind of hidden gem that I constantly look for when watching movies. This is definitely one of those that you have probably never heard of, and I must encourage you to give this one a chance. This was such a remarkable story with such excellent characters that it really left me thinking about it for a long time afterward. I have been a fan of Genevieve Bujold since the 70’s but haven’t seen her in years. It was like a reunion seeing her again. She did an excellent job in this role and deserves accolades for her performance as well. This is one of those films that deserves our patronage, as it’s the kind of film we need much more of in this age of remakes, sequels, and brainless action films. I really loved this one.

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