Review: Trigger

Trigger was on my pre-post-it-flag list for the festival, but it didn’t make the cut. While it had a couple of things going for it that I look for in a festival movie – a good picture in the book and an actor (Molly Parker) and director (Bruce McDonald) that I enjoy I’m afraid at some point in the past few years I have become more and more likely to not pick movies from Canada.
It’s not because I’m anti-Canada, I’m Canadian. I live in Toronto. The older I get the more I love it here. I’m writing this in winter so I really mean it.
However I’ve been spoiled by the volume and quality of movies available at TIFF every year. I have become lazy in programming my personal festival experience and when in doubt movies selected by Jane or Thom or Colin will always trump anything else.
Trigger was a reminder that I need to take a step back and take the odd risk. If I had seen it this year, I don’t think it would have been in my top five, but there was something about it that stayed with me long after the film was over. It was set in Toronto, and unlike Scott Pilgrim that lit and showcased Toronto in a way that made it seem somewhat more suited to it’s graphic novel origins, Trigger showed how beautiful Toronto can be when it’s not pretending to be some other place. Kind of like going back and looking at picture of Pamela Anderson when she was still dating Scott Baio.
The story reminded me of a book, The Friend Who Got Away. The movie follows the uncomfortable attempts of two formerly close friends to reconnect. Their meandering journey around the city as they talk around the issues that separated them so many years ago is a thoughtful and sweet post-mortem of a relationship.