The cinematic output of Canada is primarily clustered around the major urban centres of Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal with occasional contribution from other regions. While you may have seen a film or show from the likes of Nova Scotia (Trailer Park Boys) or Newfoundland (Hudson & Rex), when was the last time you saw something out of Prince Edward Island that wasn’t based on Anne of Green Gables?
Turns out that Charlottetown native Jeremy Larter has been doing his part over the past decade to keep Canada’s least-populous province on the screens, writing and directing such screen comedies as Just Passing Through and Pogey Beach. His latest work lands in the form of private-eye caper Who’s Yer Father?
Lifelong loser Larry Constable (Chris Locke) has the “market cornered” on the private eye business, running the titular operation from his ramshackle home office. His methods are sloppy and lack discipline, but he’s the only local option for seafood magnate Luke Throne (Matt Wells) who tasks Larry with finding out who is syphoning off valuable lobster business up-island.
Armed with a hefty up-front payment and a can-do attitude, Larry blunders into town and promptly makes an ass of himself, running afoul of local lobster fisherman Glenn Misener (Steve Lund) who is not only the culprit behind the lobster case, but is also helping himself to Luke’s loose wife Nicole (Kaniehtiio Horn).
Down but not out, Larry finds a local partner in the form of Rhonda (This Hour Has 22 Minutes alum Susan Kent) who finds the case to be just the right spark she needs to snap out of her mid-life crisis and perhaps manifest a soft-serve machine for her corner store. But things begin to spiral out of control when Rhonda decides to blackmail Nicole over her infidelity and the pair get mixed up with the wayward Junior (Jess Salgueiro) who blows into town looking to get rid of a corpse.
Who’s Yer Father is promoted as a comedy, but I maybe laughed once throughout and not even at a clever joke. The protagonists manage to make you cringe in nearly every scene and not in a particularly endearing way. The humour may elicit chuckles from the cast and crew and perhaps even the maritime locals, but whatever their going for doesn’t translate outside the 902 area code. The entire movie feels like an annoying stranger that you can’t get away from because you’re seated together on a 10 hour flight.
The best cast member is easily P.E.I itself which is splendidly rendered by cinematographer Kevin A. Fraser with plenty of local colour. You could probably even edit the b-roll into a decent tourism ad. Too bad Chris Locke’s constant lip smacking and finger licking have put me off of ever trying Lobster again.
Who’s Yer Father proves to be quite a chore to sit through at 110 painfully unfunny minutes (and I’m getting paid to write about it!). The whole thing plays like a watered-down sitcom episode that was painfully stretched to an unsustainable two hours. If you want to see P.E.I on screen, you’d be better off flying there yourself and filming a better movie on your iPhone.
3.5/10 (and that’s me being generous in the spirit of the holiday season)
Who’s Yer Father will be available on all major VOD platforms beginning on Dec 12
Perfectly stated. The gratuitous foul language was cringe worthy after the first 20 minutes. I left after the first hour at the sec party. Talk of pegging was enough for me.