The unconventional screenplay, the directing, and the acting are the elements of this emotional experience that subliminally brings viewers to the reality of their own mortality, and legacy.
An Experimental Film with a Message
A Wake is dramatic, disconcerting, and entertaining. The characters brilliantly convey the message that letting go of our inner pain is never as cataclysmic as holding on to it. The ending is cathartic as characters let go of the toxic emotions that had burdened their lives. Still, the ending is just the beginning.
"The film is an experiment in getting genuine emotion through improvisation," Buitenhuis wrote in an email before departing for Cannes, in 2016, after A Wake was selected by Telefilm. Since then, the film has won Canadian and international awards, including Best Feature at the 2016 Carmel Film Festival, an award presented by Mr. Clint Eastwood.
A Screenplay by Penelope Buitenhuis and Krista Sutton
Gabor Zazlov (Nicholas Campbell), a famous theatre director, died suddenly. His widow, Hanna (Tara Nicodemo), invites the members of his last and ill-fated production of Hamlet to a wake at their country house. Resentment dramatically escalates as each thespian gives a personal account of life after Hamlet.
Tyler (Graham Abbey), who played Hamlet, is a minor Hollywood celebrity secretly in love with Maya (Krista Sutton), who played Ophelia. Raj (Raoul Bhaneja), who is still resentful to have lost the role of Hamlet to Tyler, is a successful real estate agent. Still composed as she prepares dinner, it is a matter of time until Hanna loses control of the gathering assembled at the dining table. Enters Chad (Kristopher Turner), Zazlov’s son who is unaware that his father died; hell breaks loose as he accuses Hanna to have killed him. He eventually takes the proceedings over and asks the actors to do a last reading of Hamlet, demanding the raw truth. Hanna suggests that it be filmed as a tribute to the late director. Adding oil on the fire is Danielle (Sarain Boylan) who, after being insulted by Sabina (Martha Burns), the patron of the company, discloses shocking facts.
The night brings more twists and turns until morning comes. Everyone leaves unaware of what will still unfold.
Cinematic Techniques Versus Reality Show
The central dinner scene was Buitenhuis’ vision as the setting for this collective exercise: the search for truth through confrontation. The truth is important to the film writer and director who is known for creating sets as devoid of obstacles as possible, so actors feel unencumbered.
As a liberating mean of expression, the script included ad-lib, freeing the actors from the restraint of artificial dialogue. The dinner scene, which was rehearsed for two of the ten-day filming to allow the continuity of the story, was mostly improvised.
Buitenhuis kept the genuine emotional momentum going by limiting the filming location to the setting of a country house. As a result, actors stayed within their own impetuous instead re-creating it in a different location on a different day.
As for the impressive impromptu of the emotional meltdown that led to the shocking confession, it might bring to mind some of the reality shows of television. Indeed, when random frames are filmed by Chad, who acted in other frames, viewers are unsettled and drawn as if they were observing the filming of a real situation. But, unlike reality shows, the filming of A Wake had the merit of a screenplay with a clear plot that sustained its course.
Last but not least: Since the ending of the film is just the beginning, here is the beginning, as my ending:
The opening scene is an intimate close-up of Hanna’s enigmatic face. The ground is covered by snow as white as death -- an understated symbol of life as Hanna’s breath evaporates in the cold air. She welcomes guests matter-of-factly but her accented-voice rivets viewers' attention.
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