Grief affects us all in different ways. The death of a person brutal and powerful but shatters into different pieces. Yet somehow it connects us. The pull of mourning pairs you with members of that persons circles in more ways than one.
In Kelly Walker’s My Fiona, the intimacy and fragments of life after a lost loved one pulls two women together in unexpected ways.
The film revolves around Jane, a young woman who has started a successful business with her friend Fiona. When Fiona commits suicide, Jane’s life is thrown into turmoil. The only way that Jane can make sense of her grief is to help Fiona’s widow Gemma care for their young son Bailey. These two women who are very different start to grow closer, and soon their relationship becomes more than just kinship.
My Fiona is a great tale about the intricacies of grief following a death. Looking at the ebbs of heartache in a realistic way, the film is a both a tale about the impact of a bereavement and somehow an uplifting tale about humanity at its rawest. Walker intellectually weaves this stirring story about two women seemingly abandoned together and how they learn to aid each other in turbulent times.
Though there are parts of acting that feels uneven, there is a lot of greatness between the two leads. Jeanette Maus is a terrific lead as Jane who has a tempered rambunctious Jane who happily yells her thoughts out in her anger. Though she struggles with Fiona’s passing but throws herself into helping Gemma. She is a great and complex character. Corbin Reid is, too, brilliant as Gemma. A more stoic character who starts to unfold over the course of the film, Reid accomplished at a compartmentalising person dealing with parts she cannot pack away. Together they make a brilliant pairing and ignite the screen with their chemistry and relationship.
My Fiona, however, is both a timid and tenacious film. It never makes for easy answers and never tries to solve why Fiona did what she did. Instead, it looks at the strength and love it takes to heal and move forward, no matter what atrocities and trauma has happened. The movie is an affecting one, sure to touch the soul of everyone who has lost someone close.
Walker crafts a profound and courageous indie film that dives deep into the myriad of human sexuality and emotions.
Movies on Weekends 