Photo | “All My Puny Sorrows” – Carousel Pictures
Secretly, this is a book review smuggled inside a review of the movie “All My Puny Sorrows,” an immensely accomplished film adaptation of a piercingly emotional novel by Miriam Toews. Alison Pill and Sarah Gadon bring to life the best-selling Canadian novel about two adult sisters who are trying to reckon with their strict Mennonite upbringing and their father’s suicide.
The 2014 book presumably felt so real and true because it basically is true — author Miriam Toews was raised in a Mennonite community, her father committed suicide and her beloved sister later attempted the same multiple times. The unsolvable intractability of mental health struggles and adulthood, in general, struck a chord. While the emotional truths of the novel “All My Puny Sorrows” were undeniable, Toews’ sharp sarcasm and black humor are what set the novel apart.
This film succeeds in capturing that magical blend. All the actors deliver the kind of world-weary gallows humor that causes you to make a joke even though you are at the hospital bedside of a gravely ill relative. And Toews’ women characters are the kind who laugh and cry at the same time. These women are vividly realized by Pill as Yoli, the sister who is a divorced writer, and Gadon as Elf, the gorgeous concert pianist who is determined to end her life. When they talk to each other, they are wonderfully prickly and sardonic. The script captures the shorthand available to siblings with a lifetime of shared experiences. Flashbacks to the girls’ childhood are just as mysterious as they are illuminating. Their late father seems like a ghost even when he is still alive, and Donal Logue has a huge impact on the film even with his brief screen time as the father.
I will not pretend this is a happy film; it is undeniably a drama that nevertheless manages to avoid melodrama. The subject matter is serious, but the female stars keep it from being a downer. Perhaps you will watch this film and feel comforted rather than bummed out, because of the compassion and intelligence with which Elf, Yoli, their mom and their aunt face the complexities of their lives.
“All my Puny Sorrows” is wonderfully literate, and not just because it is based on a book; the characters are erudite and they think and talk about their lives through a lens of literature and music. One of the few glimpses of the father’s life we get is when, against the wishes of the community elders, he starts a library.
Now it’s time to plug not just this novel but all of Miriam Toews’ books; over the course of thinking about this review, I have realized she is one of my favorite contemporary writers. If this one sounds too much of a bummer for you, her recently released “Fight Night” deals with another family of females but it is energetic and hilarious. It still tackles mortality, but it is an absolute delight.
If you are in the right mindset for a serious drama, “All My Puny Sorrows” is a delicate, beautiful story, a worthy screen adaptation of a book that has challenged and comforted many readers. Miriam Toews’ intellectual and emotional powers of creativity are brought to life by writer/director Michael McGowan and the actresses — Pill, Gadon, Mimi Kuzyk and Mare Winningham. Their story has a lot to say about endurance and grace, carrying on and moving on.
“All My Puny Sorrows” is now available to rent.
New this Week
“Downton Abbey: A New Era”: The Crawley family goes on a grand journey to the South of France to uncover the mystery of the dowager countess’s newly inherited villa in this sequel to the film based on the popular television show. Crescent Theater, Nexus Cinema Dining, All multiplex theaters.
“Men”: In the aftermath of a personal tragedy, Harper (Jessie Buckley) retreats alone to the beautiful English countryside, hoping to find a place to heal. However, someone or something from the surrounding woods appears to be stalking her. What begins as simmering dread soon becomes a fully formed nightmare, inhabited by her darkest memories and fears. Directed by Alex Garland (“Ex Machina,” “Annihilation”), this is sure to be wonderfully insane. All multiplex theaters.
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