Wilby Wonderful
Last night iconis was asking if anyone had a copy of Wilby Wonderful. I know first hand how impossible it can be getting your hands on obscure (yet brilliant) Canadian movies in freaking Finland and I really want to spread the love, so I uploaded it to sendspace for anyone who might be interested. Imdb calls Wilby Wonderful "A day-in-the-life dark comedy concerning a group of islanders, their respective secrets, and one man's plan to kill himself quietly," which is a pretty good summary of the movie. It's the sweetest, saddest, funniest, most beautiful little Canadian movie ever and if you haven't seen it, you really really should.
So, here it is, Wilby Wonderful part 1.rar (260 MB), part 2.rar (260 MB), part 3.rar (214 MB) and also DVD extras (avi file, 94 MB, behind the scenes stuff, ETA: I remembered wrong, no trailers on this one. But the interviews are good. Callum!). The movie's excellent official site is sadly down and I think it might be permanent, but I found the trailer here if you want to check it out before downloading.
So, just to sum things up, the movie has Callum Keith Rennie as gay handyman Duck, Paul Gross as apathetic police officer Buddy, Sandra Oh as tightly wound real estate agent Carol and Daniel Allodi as depressed and suicidal video store owner Dan. Visual aids for those who aren't obsessed with Canadian actors (apparently such people do exist) and a longer (but possibly spoilery) description of the movie on the crack_van overview. The central storyline of the movie is actually pretty grim and almost everyone starts out unhappy and making bad decisions. But it's told with such warmth, humour and understanding for the characters that you can't help but love them in all their imperfections. (Lalala, birds singing, puppies frolicking, good grief, could I be any more earnest? *g*) Also, I repeat, it has paint-spattered Callum Keith Rennie as a gay handyman. If that doesn't sway you, I don't know what will.
According to the now-dead official site, Wilby Wonderful is:
...a bittersweet comedy about the difference a day makes. Over the course of twenty-four hours, the residents of the tiny island town of Wilby try to maintain business as usual in the face of very unusual business.
___________________________
As a scandal threatens to rock the very foundation of Wilby Island, Duck MacDonald (Callum Keith Rennie), the town’s dyslexic sign-painter, keeps interrupting the depressed video store owner Dan Jarvis (James Allodi) during his half-hearted suicide attempts. Meanwhile, Dan has enlisted the blindly-ambitious real estate agent, Carol French (Sandra Oh), to sell his house in an effort to quickly tie up the last of his loose ends. Carol however is more interested in selling her recently deceased mother-in-law’s house to Mayor Brent Fisher (Maury Chaykin), in order to get on-side with the in-crowd.
To take her social step up, Carol could use the help of her police officer husband, Buddy (Paul Gross), but Buddy has his hands full with perennially-sexy, wrong-side-of-the-tracks Sandra Anderson (Rebecca Jenkins), who can never decide if she is coming or going. Sandra’s daughter Emily (Ellen Page), is none too thrilled about her mother repeating her typical pattern of late nights and married men, but Emily herself is just about to have her heart broken for the very first time. Of course everyone’s concerns are going to be very different tonight when someone finds the body in the closet. Welcome to Wilby.
So, here it is, Wilby Wonderful part 1.rar (260 MB), part 2.rar (260 MB), part 3.rar (214 MB) and also DVD extras (avi file, 94 MB, behind the scenes stuff, ETA: I remembered wrong, no trailers on this one. But the interviews are good. Callum!). The movie's excellent official site is sadly down and I think it might be permanent, but I found the trailer here if you want to check it out before downloading.
So, just to sum things up, the movie has Callum Keith Rennie as gay handyman Duck, Paul Gross as apathetic police officer Buddy, Sandra Oh as tightly wound real estate agent Carol and Daniel Allodi as depressed and suicidal video store owner Dan. Visual aids for those who aren't obsessed with Canadian actors (apparently such people do exist) and a longer (but possibly spoilery) description of the movie on the crack_van overview. The central storyline of the movie is actually pretty grim and almost everyone starts out unhappy and making bad decisions. But it's told with such warmth, humour and understanding for the characters that you can't help but love them in all their imperfections. (Lalala, birds singing, puppies frolicking, good grief, could I be any more earnest? *g*) Also, I repeat, it has paint-spattered Callum Keith Rennie as a gay handyman. If that doesn't sway you, I don't know what will.
According to the now-dead official site, Wilby Wonderful is:
...a bittersweet comedy about the difference a day makes. Over the course of twenty-four hours, the residents of the tiny island town of Wilby try to maintain business as usual in the face of very unusual business.
___________________________
As a scandal threatens to rock the very foundation of Wilby Island, Duck MacDonald (Callum Keith Rennie), the town’s dyslexic sign-painter, keeps interrupting the depressed video store owner Dan Jarvis (James Allodi) during his half-hearted suicide attempts. Meanwhile, Dan has enlisted the blindly-ambitious real estate agent, Carol French (Sandra Oh), to sell his house in an effort to quickly tie up the last of his loose ends. Carol however is more interested in selling her recently deceased mother-in-law’s house to Mayor Brent Fisher (Maury Chaykin), in order to get on-side with the in-crowd.
To take her social step up, Carol could use the help of her police officer husband, Buddy (Paul Gross), but Buddy has his hands full with perennially-sexy, wrong-side-of-the-tracks Sandra Anderson (Rebecca Jenkins), who can never decide if she is coming or going. Sandra’s daughter Emily (Ellen Page), is none too thrilled about her mother repeating her typical pattern of late nights and married men, but Emily herself is just about to have her heart broken for the very first time. Of course everyone’s concerns are going to be very different tonight when someone finds the body in the closet. Welcome to Wilby.