The mysterious death of a director brings his widow, his son and his theatre company together for a memorial at his country house.
An intense little drama distinguished by an excellent ensemble cast, A Wake is a tale of jealousy, revenge and truth; it unfolds more like a play than a film, and the dialogue is often wonderfully zippy -- because a lot of it is improvised.
Famed theatre director Gabor Zazlov (Nicholas Campbell) is obviously very sick. He's hectoring his wife Hanna (Tara Nicodemo) to commit to something for him, and the next thing you know, he's dead. Did she kill him, for heaven's sake? Was it suicide? Natural causes?
Soon, Hanna is welcoming house guests. Gabor's planned production of Hamlet never took place, but here are his players, come to pay their respects at his wake: Tyler (Graham Abbey), the actor who would have played Hamlet had he not gone off to Hollywood and made good; Maya (Krista Sutton, who also co-wrote), a new mom and yoga enthusiast who would have played Ophelia; Danielle, a loud and vaguely tarty actress who drinks and snorts too much coke and who has a bad history with Gabor, and Sabina (Martha Burns), the patron of the company. Also on hand is Raj (Raoul Bhaneja), a real estate salesman who once had hopes of playing Hamlet, and Gabor's son Chad (Kristopher Turner).
After too much alcohol, fighting over bedrooms and dredging up of old grudges and jealousies, the guests agree to do a final run-through of Hamlet in honour of Gabor.
But not so fast. At dinner, Hanna asks if she can film the proceedings. The general decision is made to celebrate the truth. Anything filmed will be shown later at a public memorial for Gabor.
It doesn't take long for the daggers to come out. The various players accuse each other of one thing and another, and as the night progresses, the truth really does come out. People blurt out various things, make long-overdue apologies, confess their failures. It ain't pretty. But it is kind of fun.
Sadder but wiser, they all leave the next day, unaware that the story isn't over yet.
One of the coolest things about A Wake is that writer/director Penelope Buitenhuis has created a passel of unattractive characters. Each of them is horribly flawed and most are selfish, and it's frankly a darkly comic treat to see them interact. That each manages to make himself or herself sympathetic in the end is a tribute to the writers and the actors.
A Wake has won several honours, among them the best feature film award at the 2010 Carmel Arts and Film Festival, and the best film award at the 2010 Female Eye Festival in Toronto.
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