Who would have thought a small town in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, would be an excellent setting for a film combining fishing and international drug smuggling? In Little Lorraine, a drama unfolds in the quietest of places, going from tragedy to salvation, to greed, and paying the price for not seeing the big picture, or choosing to ignore it.
While the film doesn’t always work and is sometimes bogged down with some clunky dialogue and uneven scenes, it’s a gripping tale that digs into the consequences of questionable decisions, even with family at stake.
In 1986, a mining explosion left ten men dead, and the mine was forced to close, leaving many out of work and struggling to survive. Jimmy (Stephen Amell) is one such miner, as are friends Tommy (Joshua Close) and Jake (Steve Lund). Just when things seem hopeless, the wind shifts in their favor.
Uncle Huey (Stephen McHattie), who is known by many as conniving and untrustworthy, rolls in with a proposition of good money on his lobster fishing boat. After initially blowing off the offer, the men are left with no choice but to agree, and soon their worst fears are realized as they are hip deep in something they don’t know how to escape from.
Director and co-writer Andy Hines takes his time with the story, building some background with the characters and, just as importantly, the town itself. The setting is beautiful, with a real sense of open ocean dangers, which is a great backdrop for a film.
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The story does lag at times as a lot of time is taken with certain characters and scenes, but for the most part, he does well to bring the audience into the town and make them feel like part of the community. Amell is solid if not unspectacular as Jimmy, and both Close and Lund help make the trio a pretty solid group of characters to watch.
There is no doubt McHattie is having the most fun here, fully embracing the sleazy and morally compromised Huey. He is devious and charismatic, and feeds off the desires and desperations of others to serve his own needs. It’s interesting to watch, as the audience knows he’s not to be trusted; hell, the characters know it too. But desperate times are the perfect breeding ground for blind spots, and boy, are there lots of blind spots going on here.
One of the more unusual casting choices is Sean Astin as Father Williams. At times, his character feels like a square peg being forced into a round hole. It becomes particularly odd in the final act, when small-town justice rears its ugly head, leaving us with a strange and melancholy feeling at the end.
This aside, there are some solid supporting actors, including Rhys Darby as Tim and Auden Thornton as Emma. Columbian singer J Balvin even makes an appearance as an Interpol agent and does a fine job in the role.
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There is a wonderful mix of songs from the time and moody music that combine to make for an interesting background. There are a lot of things going on at times, and other times, not much except for some lengthy dialogues. While they’re sometimes overlong, they were a great excuse to bring the location they were filming back to the forefront, adding a lot to scenes that often needed that extra push.
Little Lorraine isn’t anything new, and its themes have been explored many times. It does accomplish its mission, though, which is to tell a good story. The film wonderfully overwhelms the audience with mood and setting, making the film all the better for it.
Little Lorraine had its World Premiere at TIFF on Sept. 5th.
