Handsome Ray was once the hero of this small town in a remote part of Newfoundland. He was a promising hockey player pursuing a career in the NHL, but his time on the ice came to a grinding halt after he was caught transporting ‘pot’ across the border. Now on the verge of his 42nd birthday he is working in construction and trying to raise two rambunctious teenager daughters on his own after his wife walked out in search of fame and stardom in Hollywood..jpeg)
At the epicenter of this narrative is Ruby, Ray’s super-smart and precocious teenage daughter, who like her mother wants to be a star and like her father is having a sexual awakening. For Ray, it comes in the form of long suppressed homosexuality that he is forced to confront, for Ruby it is a new American boy at school whom she likes and an older uncle figure who gives her the attention she needs while crossing boundaries he shouldn’t.
Amongst all the melodrama of the very intense issues the story deals with, there are also some wonderful veins of dark humor which make the whole piece that much more complete. Ruby is movingly played by a relatively unknown and delightful scene stealing Canadian actress Tatiana Maslany, whose talent was recognized with a Special Jury Prize at Sundance for this role. Actor Shawn Doyle, best known for his role as Joey on Big Love’, gives a solid performance as Ray.
With it’s rich dramatic layers and stellar acting, ‘Grown Up Movie Star’ was an impressive debut feature for writer turned director Adriana Maggs at Sundance in 2010 and is now available at Amazon
