Director: Peter Wellington
Writer: Jeremy Boxen
Actors: Malin Akerman, Tyler Labine, Lucy Punch, Dan Petronijevic
Rating: Unrated
Runtime: 91 min
Dark comedy is a delicate art, as a film must strike a balance between humour and horror. It is the bringing together of seemingly opposing elements that makes these movies shocking yet pleasing; some, like the classic Fargo, combine witty dry humour with violence, while others, like the more recent Bernie, opt to use charmingly sweet humour with violence instead. Canadian director Peter Wellington attempts to strike dark comedic gold with his new film Cottage Country. However, Wellington appears to have forgotten to include the opposing element in his movie, and presents a work that does offer over-the-top gore, but does not provide a single laugh.
Canadian actors Malin Akerman and Tyler Labine star as mild-mannered couple Cammie Ryan and Todd Chipowski, who travel to Todd’s family cottage for a relaxing weekend get away. Every detail of the trip, right down to the “surprise” marriage proposal on the nearby island, has been planned to perfection. Fantasy quickly turns to nightmare, however, when Todd’s immature and annoying brother Salinger (Dan Petronijevic) shows up with his girlfriend Masha (Lucy Punch) in tow. After being pushed to his limit one too many times, the amiable Todd commits the unthinkable: he murders his brother. The couple is determined not to let anything get in the way of their perfect vacation, however, and quickly hatch a plan to cover up the crime. Of course, their scheme quickly results in more bloodshed, and one misadventure leads to another, each more ridiculous than the next.
Cottage Country attempts to incorporate elements of genre satire, as it sets up horror movie tropes such as the creepy man who stops the couple on their way to the cottage, and the sexy scene once they arrive. Poking fun at an often clichéd genre can be very funny, but the problem is that satire requires biting wit, and here any intelligent ideas are entirely lacking. This “comedy” is also bereft of humour; many of the wacky situations presented have the potential to amuse, but unfortunately, nothing comical ever occurs, and I was unsure at what points I was supposed to be laughing. The gore was gross, the premise poor, and the minor characters came and went without leaving a lasting impression or generating any interest.
Labine and Akerman are bright and earnest as the fratricidal Todd and the calm and collected Cammie, and it is a real shame that they are given no funny lines to deliver, as one receives the sense that they could be excellent with strong material. There is nothing real nor engaging about these characters; instead, they are so one-dimensional that they become caricatures instead of people. The audience cannot form a connection with characters that do not display emotion or relatable attributes, and the result is that we do not care about them or the outcome of the film in which they exist.
As a critic, I feel very passionate about Canadian cinema, and I wish I could be positive about a small Canadian film such as Cottage Country. However, this film is simply not funny. Instead of creating shock and humour by mixing its extremely gratuitous violence with dry, biting wit or charming, lovable characters, this movie offers nothing more than a zany premise that spirals out of control but ultimately goes nowhere. Without humour, the movie falls flat, and an audience is left neither laughing, nor caring.
