By John Corrado
In her sophomore feature Blood Lines, Métis writer, director, and actress Gail Maurice (Rosie) crafts a family melodrama steeped in Métis culture. This cultural specificity is the main point of intrigue for Maurice’s film, which is also presented largely in the traditional Michif language.
The main character is Beatrice (Dana Solomon), a young Métis woman who works the counter at the local convenience store, and also serves as part-time reporter for her town’s newspaper. Beatrice is dealing with both her feelings for Chani (Derica Lafrance), the new girl in town who is searching for her birth family, and the reappearance of her estranged, recovering alcoholic mother Léonore (played by Maurice), who is desperate to reconnect.
At its best, Blood Lines has a gentle, lived-in feel to it, including some enjoyable comic relief from a group of older Métis ladies who constantly meddle in Beatrice’s business. This community feel, as the town prepares for their annual heritage day festival, is well-realized onscreen.
But, in mixing lesbian romance and family drama, Maurice’s screenplay features some inherently melodramatic turns (that feel overly telegraphed early on), and the film struggles to find the right tonal balance to handle its more absurd and exaggerated plot points. And the ambiguity of some of it won’t sit well with everyone.
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