Sunday, November 6, 7:00pm @ TIFF Bell Lightbox 350 King St West Reitman Square, Toronto, Ontario. Rendezvous With Madness Film Festival http://www.rendezvouswithmadness.com Filmmaker in attendance. Alethea Root, USA, 2011, 78 min, Canadian Premiere, English, Rated 14A.
Part Time Fabulous tells the story of Mel, a woman who recently fell in love with Don while on vacation in Alaska. He moves in with her and almost immediately conflicts arise between them over his smoking and beer drinking habits. Mel is an actress who hasn’t been having much luck with auditions lately and one day Don finds her alone on the bed crying. Don immediately jumps to comments about her feeling sorry for herself or that she should get a side job. Her sadness doesn’t go away so she shares with him her clinical depression diagnosis and his response is to fix it via google search. Don discovers that all it takes is exercise, getting out in nature and eating healthy so with high hopes, he proceeds to schedule her life around those things. You can probably guess that this does not go his way and more arguments between them follow. As the story unfolds, viewers get a glimpse of the realities of living with and loving someone with depression; the ups, downs, frustrations, guilt, shame, and helplessness.
Part drama/part documentary, interview clips with a variety of people discussing their experiences with depression are mixed in throughout the film. Jules Bruff gives an honest and emotional performance in the lead role of Mel while actors Bjørn Johnson and John Colms stand out in their portrayals of Don and Mel’s father. Drawing from her own history with clinical depression creator Bruff co-wrote the film with Producer/Director Alethea Root. Although I don’t understand the film’s title, the story does offer hope with Mel’s journey through healing, health, and happiness. On a side note, the music in this film is perfect, The President’s Kids (David Poe and Amy Raasch), The Milkman’s Union, Chip Godwin and Abby Miller contribute beautiful music to the soundtrack.
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