DELUXE COMBO PLATTER

Saw a screening of a new Canadian Film tonight which opens at Canada Square today and on behalf of the First Weekend Club, as in get out there this week end and support the film to keep it in the Theatres, I really want to recommend: DELUXE COMBO PLATTER - directed and shot by Vic Sarin (the great Margaret's Museum).
By the bye, coincidently, I'm just back from Cape Breton where I had the unpleasure of seeing the big Summer success WEDDING CRASHERS - a puerile piece of assaultive, offensive crapola that I walked out on.
Though comparisons are odious, because both are romantic comedies,I can't help but look at how differently the two films treated romance and comedy..and the audience.
'DELUXE COMBO...' is really satisfying, amusing, clever, heart-warming, a really nice twist on the boy/girl thing - all the things Crashers wasn't. It had Dave Thomas and Jennifer Tilly and Monique Schnarre being actually very good as were the young actors in the leads. Len Doncheff has a great turn as the Uncle.
Really good work with characters we can respond to, root for, be moved by,recognize and identify with. And all this for under 2 mil. Mind you first time screenwriter from a George Brown program Brigitte Talevski said she didn't mind going unpaid to date.


Deluxe Combo Platter Premise/Synopsis:
The film follows a small-town waitress, Eve Stuckley, (Marla Sokoloff) who secretly lusts for Jeff Sweeney, the town's most eligible bachelor. When Eve finally decides to throw caution to the wind and pursue her man, a beautiful corporate executive called Linda Avery (Schnarre) comes into town, throwing the entire male population into an uproar.

May I add to that she also throws the female population for a loop or two, too.

Henry responds to Tracks piece

From: HJAGLOM
Sent: Sunday, August 07, 2005 5:11 AM
To: cayle
Subject: Re: website

-----Original Message-----
Wow Cayle, what a piece of writing...obviously I disagree with you about the film
I think it's among my 2 or 3 best when I see it now and i'm not alone but your experience on it is so vivid and well written and fascinating, so much i'd forgotten or never had your perspective on, much truth in it though and a fascinating tale out of our lives...a great cautionary tale for young actresses...
But don't you think though it is necessary to explain how you fell under Dennis' spell and as a result, I thought, froze?.. you tell the freezing part vividly in The Central Park scene (I had totally forgotten that) but didn't ..drugs and lots of other wierd stuff with Dennis cause a lot of this problem? Or was I just so unconscious that I attributed your freezing up to that and didn't understand the fear it was coming from? I remember how shocked i was because you had shown up looking abused and wiped out and acted so "not yourself", at least as I had known you or thought I knew you...Jesus, I am so sorry that i wasn't able to handle this better..........Anyway I looked at lots of the other stuff too and it's all pretty terrific!!!

My reply to Henry:

Thanks Henry for this feedback and your ability to see my perspective..that was how I experienced it. Yes of course there was a huge component that was what happened with Dennis..I'm not sure it was about falling under his spell, but being exposed to something I had no idea existed. You threw me together with him and fostered the notion that I was to live out the film..not that I wasn't a willing participant ...The freeze occurred because I wasn't treated as an actor but as a 'real person' who was supposed to provide you with certain responses. Dennis of course was no help but at the time I confused a psychotic person with an actor treading the fact/fiction line. It wasn't about drugs. As for showing up in a condition that you immediately reacted to - it was about being with Dennis for a few days, working our way into the logic of the film, travelling etc..it was a wild time but really it concurred with what you wanted to I felt scapegoated all the way and really didn't have a hope in hell caught between the devil that would be Dennis and the deep blue see - as in how you wanted to see me.

When I finally managed to perform on camera to your approval, I was so angry about the treatment I had received as a professional actor and a friend that I I found our situation irreconcilable. What subsequently happened with Dennis - 'the lion's den' portion of the experience ultimately provided me with the missing piece of my own psychology - that indeed there were more things in heaven and earth than I had formerly taken into consideration..I like to call it the development of my spiritual side..but that's a whole other story.