A portrait of grief quickly evolves into a cabin-in-the-woods thriller in October Gale, which shows just how strong — and silly — lone women can be.
We don’t mind the lapses in credulity quite so much when Patricia Clarkson is in the lead role. Clarkson always elevates the films she is in, even when she’s required to calmly ignore bloody handprints on her front door and shut herself inside a deserted cabin.
Helen is a Toronto doctor taking an indeterminate leave, mourning the death of her husband (Callum Keith Rennie). She heads to their Georgian Bay cabin, suppressing the happy memories as she packs up old shirts, books and remnants of the life she has lost.
She hears a noise outside and finds a small boat belting violently against her dock and a boat smeared with blood. A smart character wouldn’t have left the door open, nor calmly walked back inside past the aforementioned bloody handprints: then again, smart wouldn’t have resulted in the rogue boat’s hunky occupant (Scott Speedman) lying prone on her rug.
There’s no point heading for the hills: the cottage is on an island, and power and cell service is spotty thanks to the storm that’s brewing, one to rival the October squall that claimed Helen’s husband. It doesn’t occur to Helen to be frightened of the stranger with the bullet wound; she’s more curious than frightened, and takes that Hippocratic Oath to heart.
It gives her something to do, of course, and Helen welcomes the chance to be useful in contrast to the time spent dependant on her husband. The doctoring takes her mind off things but an upcoming crisis will force Helen to face her grief head-on.
The man’s name is Will, and Helen coaxes his story from him in between playing games of crib and flirty episodes in the shower. Their guilt (hers, survivor; his, criminal) unites them.
But real danger isn’t far off. It never is when Tim Roth is in the frame.
Things get frantic as Helen and Will analyze how best to defend themselves on the island. (Filming locations Parry Sound and Lake Joseph, Ont. make for pretty backdrops whatever the weather.) There’s a lot of running around in the dark woods, with the wind blowing a gale, plus one empowering moment when Helen wields the gun and asks Will to make the coffee. Beyond that, our characters resolutely conform to type, leaving Speedman and Clarkson (and Rennie, in flashbacks) to work wonders in order to make October Gale work.
October Gale opens Friday at International Village.
