Still Mine

Still Mine is based on the true story of an elderly but independent farm couple in rural New Brunswick, Canada. When the wife begins to show signs of Alzheimer's, her husband decides to build a house better suited to her worsening condition. But zoning regulations and building codes have become immensely complicated since the farmer's last construction project, and while his carpentry skills may be as keen as ever, he becomes hopelessly ensnared in bureaucratic red tape.Writer/director Michael McGowan has crafted a film as simple and sturdy as the house his hero builds. With a nuanced script and an elegant, restrained visual style, Still Mine contains none of the maudlin, patronizing sentiment found in so many dramas about ageing and illness, and McGowan conveys his protagonist's anger and determination without grandstanding.

The film also eschews the expected stereotypes in depicting the forces opposing the main character. All the characters necessary to tell this tale are there, but the clichés are nowhere in sight. There are dozens of movies in which hardscrabble old men take on an unjust system, and most of them either bludgeon the viewer with a ham-handed political message or showcase an ageing actor in a shameless Oscar bid, but this picture is guilty of neither. When movies are "based on a true story," filmmakers often think that fact alone will instil authenticity in the picture, and they excuse themselves from doing the real work of creating a compelling screenplay that isn’t just a collection of banal and unconvincing plot points. McGowan and his two leads, acclaimed American character actor James Cromwell and stalwart Canadian leading lady Geneviève Bujold, succeed masterfully in bringing this moving account to life.