Squamish has a long history of serving as a silver screen stand-in for towns stretching from Oregon to Alaska.
But Sept. 30 marked the first time the town has ever starred as itself when Deluxe Combo Platter had its world premiere during the Vancouver International Film Festival.
Written by newcomer Brigitte Taleveski and directed by Vic Sarin (Margaret's Museum, Whale Music), this new romantic comedy tells a tale of boy meets girl, girl falls for boy, followed by both meeting yet another girl, this one the type who happens to listen to a lot of kd lang and who wears "sensible shoes." Not, of course, that there is anything wrong with that.
Marla Sokoloff (Sugar & Spice, TV's The Practice) stars as Eve Stuckley, a pudgy aspiring artist who spends her days waitressing at the Hog Chow Diner (Britannia Beach's 99er Diner) and burning with unrequited lust for Jeff Sweeney (Barry Watson of 7th Heaven fame), "Squamish's most eligible bachelor" (a line that, it pains me to admit, was greeted with loud guffaws from the audience) and owner of the local hotel.
When gorgeous businesswoman Linda Avery, played by former supermodel Monika Schnarre, comes to town, Jeff is instantly smitten but it seems the newcomer only has eyes for Eve.
This bizarre love triangle is further complicated when Eve's brother Chuck (House of the Dead's Jonathan Cherry), whose internal gaydar is apparently as wonky as his buddy Jeff's, also tries to make the moves on her. But who, if anyone, will end up with (as the song goes) a little bit of Monika in their lives?
The thin plot thickens when it is revealed Linda is only here in "the armpit of the world" in order to build a casino and turn the town into "Vegas on steroids." But, as anyone who saw last summer's cautionary tale Walking Tall knows, Canada's Outdoor Recreation Capital and licensed gambling establishments somehow just don't mix. She knows "the exploitation of a small town doesn't just happen overnight" (just ask Wal-Mart) and so is here to do the required advance dirty work -and to maybe convince Eve to experiment with "ordering off the menu" while she's at it.
Whatever your taste in movies, Deluxe Combo Platter is worth sampling for more reasons than to simply catch glimpses of the Chief, or to try and recognize locals lurking in the background as extras (for the record, my own out-of-focus visage makes a few brief appearances during the tequila-fuelled seduction scene in the Shady Tree). Despite its saucy subject matter, the film is essentially a feel-good comedy about finding happiness through following one's heart.
Although a perfectly enjoyable way to spend 103 minutes, the film isn't without some problems. For starters, the entire premise hinges on accepting that baby-faced Eve's life is loveless because she is overweight and therefore sexually invisible to Jeff. Even the modest padding Sokoloff wears around her middle for the role does little to disguise the fact she is easily as attractive as the amazonian Schnarre. Shorter, yes. Less beautiful, not necessarily.
As to why the hidden stash of cash that shows up out of nowhere to save the day in this Canadian film is made up of American dollars, one can only assume this was done in order to avoid alienating potential audiences should the film be lucky enough to find a distributor below the 49th parallel.
Sarin told the crowd the film is expected to be in theatres sometime next spring, by which time there will finally be a chance to see a Squamish-made movie up on a Squamish movie screen.
