Suspicious River

Leila Murray is a motel receptionist in a small Canadian town that is named after a muddy and fast-flowing creek: Suspicious River. People’s suspicion of autumnal nature seems to have taken firm root here. Everything and everyone is waiting for a terrible and cold winter that will keep even the most dauntless indoors. But Leila (played by a wonderful Molly Parker) spends most of the film wandering around in a flimsy dress as if she is challenging the cold, even if it does give her pneumonia. Leila’s service to her guests goes further than checking in: for the price of a room, she offers herself too. Her lethargic husband has no idea; she hides the money she earns. She is saving it up, but she doesn’t know what for. Until one day the attractive and helpful Gary stops at the motel. Leila is instantly infatuated with him, despite his dominant character. When he suggests they leave together, Leila thinks she has found a way out of her aimless life and will be able to chase after dreams she might not even cherish.In Suspicious River, Stopkewich – well known for her controversial début Kissed – succeeds in maintaining the oppressive mood right to the end. A chastening study of the thin line between pleasure and danger, between self-awareness and self-destruction, between autumn and spring.