Everyone thinks you are part of the perfect couple in your group. You decide you aren't in love with your partner anymore. Oh, and you just found out you are pregnant.
Parsley Days features Kate (Megan Dunlop) who has dated Ollie (Michael Leblanc) for 5 years. Everyone loves Ollie: her best friend Lila (Marla McLean), her friend Chloe (Marcia Connolly) and Chloe's partner Pauline (Shannon Cunningham), her sister Jane (Tara Doyle) and her children.
Kate doesn't want to tell Ollie that she is pregnant. Getting an abortion in Nova Scotia wasn't that easy in 2000. Chloe suggests Kate consume a lot of parsley to bring on menses.
The group lives in Halifax and gets around on bikes. Ollie points out that he doesn't even have a bike, getting around on the back of Kate's bike. Kate teaches a bike repair class.
We see a young man riding around town in slow motion. Is Kate interested in him. Joleen (Vanessa Maximillian) is in Kate's class but gets upset when Kate doesn't cover the chapters in order. Joleen spends a lot of time with Ollie, the king of contraception. Is she interested in Ollie? If Ollie is the king of contraception, then how did Kate get pregnant?
Parsley Days is one of those quirky independent films where everyone is relatively nice. The film does feel like eating warm soup while wrapped in a blanket.
The film also feels real with real, honest, believable characters where you aren't sure you are watching a fictional film. Could have watched these characters for twice as long as the 84 minutes in the film.
Ollie seems so perfect but that is make Kate's fate so much more nuanced. We've seen enough films when the woman dumps a man for minor and major faults.
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Andrea Dorfman wrote and directed the 2000 film. Rare for your humble narrator to have a Canadian film where I don't recognise a single actor. Maybe the casting lend more realism to the story since you didn't have any preconceptions.
Parsley Days might seem like one of those "boring" Canadian films that some film people think about Canada and films. Like Schitt's Creek, escaping into a world where people are nice is sometimes an essential trip.
The film made Canada's Top Ten by the Toronto International Film Festival Group.
Parsley Days is available on Encore + on YouTube.
video credit: YouTube/Andrea Dorfman
photo credit: Parsley Days film
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