Canadian Film Festival: Play: the Film Review

Play: the Film (2013)

Cast: Roger Bainbridge, Conor Bradbury, Kristian Bruun
Director: Alec Toller
Country: Canada
Genre: Comedy
Official Trailer: Here

Editor’s Note: The following Play the Film review is part of our coverage of the 2014 Canadian Film Festival. For more information visit their official site.

Focusing on the tension and ego-based disagreements that exist behind the façade of a new play’s opening is an interesting premise brimming with potential amusement and cleverly constructed inside jokes delivered with a knowing nod to the audience. Unfortunately Play: the Film, from first-time feature director Alec Toller, never really harnesses this humour. What’s left is an array of stereotypes and caricatures with more annoying mannerisms than entertaining quirks.

On what is the fateful opening night of his new play, ambitious director Alec (Kristian Bruun) is understandably nervous. Clashes between cast members and unjustified egos further add to the issues he is trying to manage, and when a series of misunderstandings throw the narrative flow and message of the play into chaos, the result is on-the-spot re-writes and awkward improvisation. As relationships continue to deteriorate it becomes increasingly unlikely that the assembled company can deliver anything remotely watchable for their audience.

Play: the Film, from first-time feature director Alec Toller, never really harnesses this humour. What’s left is an array of stereotypes and caricatures with more annoying mannerisms than entertaining quirks.

With a relatively unknown cast and crew drawing on little collective experience in feature film production, credit must be given to everyone involved for attempting such a risky and pitfall-laden project. Comedy is always a difficult nut to crack given an audience’s differing senses of humour, but Play: the Film almost, almost gets it right. There are without doubt some witty and clever moments that will garner a laugh from even the most stone-faced viewer, but sadly these isolated gems become lost among the overwrought performances and staged teakiness. For much of the time there is a feeling of everything being an audition as the intentional awkwardness of the cast comes too much to the fore and any subtlety and wit is lost. In striving for—and missing—this balance the film descends into an irritating collection of shallow characters bickering and trying to outdo each other. This is also another of the film’s problems: with a running time of little over eighty minutes there’s little time to get to know any of the characters. For some of the humour to have worked more understanding of their motivations and sensibilities was necessary.

There are without doubt some witty and clever moments that will garner a laugh from even the most stone-faced viewer, but sadly these isolated gems become lost among the overwrought performances and staged teakiness.

There are good things to mention, though. As said there are some very funny moments which at least indicate that writer and cast member Kelly McCormack recognises and can deliver genuine humour. The direction is suitably manic for the subject matter and very nearly draws the viewer in to the theatre to sit among the suffering audience, but just as you’re looking for your seat, the tone sadly changes and you’re suddenly back outside the stage door.

Play: the Film is a curious project that possibly suffers from its own ambition. Caught somewhere in a curiously unamusing void between farce and satire the film lurches from one disastrous set piece to the next without ever really settling on an coherent way forward and as a result comes across as a little indulgent and messy. As a first feature for many of those involved it’s a worthy step on the ladder and the experience gained will certainly be of benefit in future work.