Teen tragedy

>> Turning Paige illuminates youth angst

by MATTHEW HAYS

Behold the laundry list of traumas poor protagonist Paige must endure in one feature film. Her mother died mysteriously. Her father’s a recovering alcoholic (and he’s not recovering very well). Her estranged brother has returned from somewhere, desperate to drag family skeletons out of the closet. It’s as though seven or eight seasons of Degrassi High were crammed into one movie.

Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. When Robert Cuffley and Jason Long’s screenplay gets cranked to 11 on the histrionics volume scale, Turning Paige’s solid ensemble cast manage to keeps things grounded. Paige herself is played by Katharine Isabelle, in a performance that is both grand but subtle (no easy task, especially from a young actor) while dad is portrayed by Nicholas Campbell, also fine as a man tortured by the passing of his wife.
The two live in what appears to be a semi-happy environment, but bro (Philip DeWilde) returns from his own solitude to move back in with the dysfunctional clan. It’s not a pretty picture; DeWilde ends up in fisticuffs with pops and sleeps with Paige’s best friend. Paige is soon asking the local thugs to smack her bro upside the head to teach him a lesson.

Director Cuffley manages some very sad and disturbing moments in this, his directorial debut. Turning Paige is a heartfelt film, without a doubt. But it does suffer a few of the traps that plague young filmmakers. In particular, the effort to pack so much anguished hyper-drama into one feature. It often feels like the characters have no time to reflect or react to what’s going on as, before we know it, they’ve all been dipped in their next downturn.
Still, in the sea of dreck that’s tossed up on big screens to appeal to teens these days, Turning Paige offers a decent respite. An inspired cast offer up an honest reflection of the difficulties that young people can face—no small feat, in today’s movie environment. :

Turning Paige opens Friday, March 22