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Amos Lassen wrote on 07/04/2012:

This is the story of 13 year old Ruby who is determined to grow up fast after her mother runs away to become a movie star, leaving Ruby with her hopelessly rural father. Ray, Ruby’s father, was once a hockey player and the town hero, comes home to Newfoundland after having been away because of a drug conviction. His wife, Lillian, leaves him for another man and because she thinks that she has star quality. Ray has begun to deal with his growing awareness that he might be gay and Ruby, having no guidance in her life begins to think about her own sexuality and in order to be noticed, gets into some dangerous situations. She soon begins to spend a lot of time with her father’s best friend, Stuart, who is in a wheelchair because of an accident that involved Ray. Stuart feels an attraction for Ruby and he then takes everyone to a conclusion that is a heart breaker

.We are given a look at a dysfunctional family and through it we get a study of relationships. There is a lot of drama here and there are some excellent performances. Tatiana Maslany as Ruby, a 13 year old in need of parental guidance gives a brilliant performance and she is someone to watch. Her mother abandoned her, her father is emotionally unable to take care of her and she has no direction in life. She tries to grow up and thereby flirts with danger with tragic results yet there is something very sensitive and tender about her and we get a tiny shred of hope that while the entire family is down but not totally forlorn. Because of the excellent acting of the cast, what could have been a soap opera is saved.

Even with the plot seeming to be contrived at times, all is almost saved by the performances. The subplot of Ray and his homosexuality was a bit hard to believe—he has two daughters at home yet he still brings a man home and they have sex in the living room and not the bedroom. There is no explanation for this and it is totally implausible except if they had been drunk and if they were, we know nothing about it. There were several other situations that were not totally believable because they were not set up and these could have easily been resolved in the screenplay. It is the sex scenes that do not work and this is perhaps the fault of the editing.

On the plus side is director Adriana Maggs’s approach to a coming-of-age film. There have been many films that have dealt with the subject before but very few have been as fresh as this. The cast, being newbies, were required to carry the film and they do and do so well.

“Maggs sets up a very complicated household situation for much her fractured family. Ray (Shawn Doyle) is a former hockey player and the downtrodden father to two daughters, whose mother has left them for Hollywood to pursue an acting career. Ruby (Tatiana Maslany) is a mature and sharp 14 year old who has stepped up to take care of herself and her 11 year old sister Rose (Julie Kennedy). The idea of Ray raising two daughters going through adolescence, on his own is challenging enough, but when he’s trying to reconcile his own personal sexual complications, he’s going through a head spinning labyrinth of emotions. Ruby’s increasing awareness of her sexuality causes her to have her own dreams of grandeur of becoming a Hollywood movie star, and so she cozies up to her Uncle Stu (Jonny Harris), a wheelchair bound photographer with a creepy predilection for young girls – a dangerous concoction which will bring to a head a history of family conflicts.

Maggs has written in a sophisticated version of a small town modern family. Ray and Ruby’s relationship is written with such realism, we can’t predict the reactions of each other to their own emotional revelations which arise throughout the film. Yet Maggs’ precise control of tone and remarkably realistic characters say exactly the right things at the right time. From drugs, homosexuality, pedophilia, rape, blow jobs, broken foreskins, Maggs admirably never gives her characters a break, and is miraculously on the mark with everything”.

There is dark comedy here as well and it rises out of some of the situations the characters find themselves in. When Ruby walks into the room where her father is getting a blow job from her high school gym teacher, she okays at the situation through adult eyes and is not angry about her father’s homosexuality but that he has lied to her and has been hiding this very important aspect of his life. Overall, I really liked the film and am willing to overlook the flaws because of the admirable performances.