Still Mine

Couldn't help but wonder what Michael McGowan's Still Mine would have been like had it been made in the States.

The narrative introduces a stern yet friendly do-it-yourself farmer named Craig Morrison (James Cromwell) and his loving wife Irene (Geneviève Bujold), 2 of their 7 children, and the traditional family structure that intergenerationally holds them together.

Craig is 86 and in incredible shape.

When it becomes apparent that his home can no longer safely accommodate Irene, due to her ailing health, he decides to build a new one, on his own, going so far as to cut down the requisite trees, by himself, this guy's hardcore.

But bureaucratic regulations and an intransigent unsympathetic inspector (Jason X's Jonathan Potts as Rick) go to ridiculously meticulous lengths in their adherence to related laws, even after Mr. Morrison yields to their demands, doing everything he can to uphold them, paying hefty fees along the way.

Craig Morrison is exceptional.

He's 86.

He's in better shape than I will ever be.

He doesn't only know how to build a solidly constructed immaculately modest house, he can do it, he starts doing it, he does it.

Still Mine makes a great case for the fact that some individuals possess the necessary skills and knowledge to develop intricate ideas and see them through, on their own land, even though they may not hold related educational credentials and may be unaware of the legal consequences of doing so at first, yet if they are still willing to abide by said consequences after discovering their existence, they should therefore be given some productive leeway by obnoxious young bucks with nothing better to do but cross every t.

Mr. Morrison yields.

He pays.

He plays ball.

Weapons aren't involved, the film's not called The Grandfather Clause, he has the wherewithal, and doesn't go ape shit.

I didn't like how he cut down old growth spruce but that's another matter.

He makes a funny point about how many of the houses built in St. Martins New Brunswick without a National Building Code 200 years ago are still standing.

Still Mine also romantically nurtures a devoted conception of marriage, which is difficult for me to understand after all that Proust.

Not that everyone isn't devoted to marriage in In Search of Lost Time.

They simply employ a counterintuitive methodology in their application of various codes of conduct.