Review: The Heirloom makes your heart hurt for everyone who’s ever suffered a quarter-life crisis | Canada Voices

The Heirloom

Written and Directed by Ben Petrie

Starring Grace Glowicki, Ben Petrie, Cheers (the dog)

In theatres Nov. 29

Calm dominance. That’s the state Eric (Ben Petrie, who also wrote and directed) is trying to reach, both with his partner Allie (Grace Glowicki) and with Milly (Cheers), the rescue whippet they just adopted. Eric, a wanna-be filmmaker, has been overworking the same sad script for five years, and Allie is palpably restless – she’s watching a lot of old home movies, wondering where she lost herself. In desperation, but feigning inspiration, Eric decides the film he should be making is about their lives, this moment. Can Allie come back from her realization that Eric’s un-calm non-dominance has been leading them in circles?

But wait, there’s one more layer of meta: Petrie and Glowicki are romantic partners in real life, and have made films together (Her Friend Adam) and separately (Tito). This one is based on the adoption of their real rescue dog, Dilly, in peak-pandemic October, 2020. They shot in a rented apartment dressed with furniture from their real home. The strains on their relationship are real, too. The result is part auto-fiction, part therapy session and part cheeky joke (it’s very deadpan-funny).

It also made my heart hurt, for everyone who’s ever suffered a quarter-life crisis – who tries to cheer up their crappy rental with cheap junk; who gets a pet as a trial baby, fussing overmuch about its food (should a dog be vegan?), moods and outfits (Milly sports a floral coat and red booties); who looks at the partner with whom they threw in their lot when they were too young to know anything, clammily thinks, “This is it?” and realizes they either have to crush them or put up with them. But my heart hurts especially for everyone who’s trying to work this out while also living every moment on camera, even if that’s just social media. The line between what’s real and what isn’t is scratchy enough for young people. Having to perform that as well rubs the wounds raw.

In the interest of consistency across all critics’ reviews, The Globe has eliminated its star-rating system in film and theatre to align with coverage of music, books, visual arts and dance. Instead, works of excellence will be noted with a critic’s pick designation across all coverage. (Television reviews, typically based on an incomplete season, are exempt.)