“Inertia” (Canada 2001) ****
Directed by Sean Garrity
According to the Physics definition, inertia is the property of a body to remain at rest or continue with uniform motion in a straight line unless acted upon by external forces. The lives of the four principals are thus affected in Winnipeg writer/director/editor Sean Garrity’s impressive debut feature “Inertia”, the result of a two year collaborative effort combining his original story with improvisational theatre.
The film opens with the sequence of the splitting up of Joseph (Jonas Chernick) and Laura (Sarah Constible). The male is in the nude with a shoe covering his penis. The end scene has the shoe removed with Joseph still in argument but with his penis dangling. This is typical of Garrity’s affecting, if not effective style throughout the film. He breaks little rules of the cinema and theatre, infuses humour on various occasions and entertains in a pleasant rather charming way, that could be perhaps an emerging style of the ‘prairie provinces’.
The story concerns the lives of Joe, Laura, their friend Bruce (Gordon Tanner) and Joe’s 19-year old cousin, Alex (Micheline Marchildon). The disturbing force is Alex who arrives and moves in with her cousin. Married Bruce falls for her, Laura for Bruce and Alex for Joe, with Joe always crazy over Laura. It is a relationship film, a kind of anti-romance comedy drama.
Garrity sketches out good characterizations. Each principal has distinct behaviors that do not flow into each other (unlike the over rated other Canadian feature “Last Wedding”). Bruce is sex-starved, love-lost and looking. Joe is fidgety, edgy but brilliant in his own way. Being a chemist in the water industry, he reads ‘Pipe Today’. Laura has the appearance of calm and collected but she is, in truth, confused and desperate while youngest Alex is the most mature. The young 20-something actors bring a fresh look to the interactions.
Garrity writes in good dialogue too. If the film appears too ‘talky’, Garrity diverts attention to images and sounds to titillate the viewer. One of Joe’s conversations takes place in an underground water facility with loud audible echoes. Another of Laura’s occurs in a cab, dashes of light reflecting off the cab’s windscreen. If there is any humour, it is slight. Example: “Let’s talk!” Rebuttal: “Aren’t you going to offer me tea?” Or just after a toast to marriage is made at dinner, someone asks: “Ever screwed around?”
Even the subplot involving a virus in the water system serves as a metaphor for the human relationships. If there is a moral behind all the going-ons, it is inconsequential. Perhaps Garrity is telling us there is a need not to be alone in the world or that human beings should not take each other for granted. Or the cheeky director could be toying us around.
“Inertia” is an entertaining first feature that should be given a decent chance. Audiences should take a break from Hollywood big budget fare like “Serendipity” or “Kate and Leopold” and view “Inertia” in all its freshness and ingenuity – for here comes an external force that is worth the effort of making a change. And at the end of the film, one realizes that the four characters stand for restlessness, doubt, desire and regret. Rather brilliant!
