A Maine fishing town isn’t quite as quaint as it would seem.
SUMMARY (Spoiler-Free)
Sisters Priscilla and Mary Beth Connolly (Sophie Lowe and Morgan Saylor) lose their mother and find themselves massively in debt. The two have a fight at the funeral, leading Mary Beth to go out and get a drink or ten. At the bar, she meets a man named Gorski (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), who she tries to go home with, only for him to attack her. She kills him in self-defense, setting events in motion that bring her into conflict with her mother’s old friend, local brothel owner Enid Devlin (character actress Margo Martindale). It turns out the history of the town of Easter Cove is not just fishermen and vacationers.
END SUMMARY
This movie is a strange blend of mystery, drama, and dark comedy and yet it always manages to work. The entire town, from the businesses to the people, is always a bit off-kilter, starting with the Singing Fisherman (David Coffin) who ushers us into the film with the title song. It seems like this is the kind of town that would be home to a bunch of rough-and-tumble fishermen, and it is, but since they’re usually out on the boat, it turns out that women do much of the actual running of the town, which is something that’s typically accurate of places dependent on such an industry. What isn’t typical is what the women in this town were willing to do to keep it running and what they feel about their actions. It’s peeling off all of the layers of deception in the town that makes the movie constantly compelling.
The performances in the film are all amazing, and I cannot help but say that Margo Martindale lives up to her status as the legendary character actress BoJack Horseman reminded us she always was. She seems like she’s always in control, but also aware that things are potentially going to fall apart soon. The Connolly Sisters are both strong characters who depend on each other even though they are constantly at each other’s throats. The supporting characters range from the women who want to close down the brothel to the officers investigating Corski’s “disappearance” and all of them manage to enhance both the unusual nature of the town and also the complexity of the plot. The dialogue in the film merits such performances, which is an accomplishment.
Overall, this film is excellent and I recommend giving it a try.
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