Normal

This morose, heavy-handed drama is neatly turned out and boasts fine performances but makes for pretty dreary entertainment. It’s a movie for people who love to feel miserable (and you know who you are!). Carrie-Anne Moss (the Matrix trilogy) stars as a mother still grieving over the death of her teenage son, who was killed in a car crash caused by drunken college professor Callum Keith Rennie. Her inability to move on affects her relationships with patient husband Andrew Airlie and younger son Cameron Bright. Normal’s men cope with their respective dilemmas by having sexual liaisons with fetching young blondes in diverting sequences that briefly lighten the oppressively heavy mood. Director Carl Bessai seems partial to driving points home with a sledgehammer when light taps would have sufficed.

Shelf Talk: Normal won three Leo Awards (the British Columbian equivalent of the Oscar) and was nominated for eight more, in addition to snagging a Writers Guild of Canada award for scripter Travis McDonald. But it will be a tough sell, as Moss is the only player familiar to American audiences, and some potential viewers will find the subject matter too depressing. Normal might benefit from comparisons to Ordinary People and In the Bedroom, to which it bears thematic similarity.