The Wright Stuff

Trigger

***1/2 out of ****

Directed by: Bruce McDonald

Starring: Tracy Wright, Molly Parker, Sarah Polley, Callum Keith Rennie and Don McKellar.

Running time: 78 minutes

“I don’t care about the destination,” says Vic, the sour ex-rocker portrayed by Tracy Wright in Bruce McDonald’s new film, Trigger. “I’m more concerned about the velocity.”

Wright, a Canadian character actress, passed away this June from pancreatic cancer. McDonald, who also helmed the Canadian punk-rock reunion flick Hard Core Logo, rushed Trigger into production after Wright was diagnosed last December so she could complete it before she succumbed to the disease.

Trigger is her swan song, a terrific film that encompasses Wright’s versatile talents. She is so cool and comfortable within her character’s skin that her bitterly funny, emotionally devastating performance comes off as sharp rather than cold, and revealing instead of wretched.

The film is almost entirely a two-woman show, and chronicles the one-night reunion of the titular punk-rock duo at a Toronto benefit concert. On one side is Vic, who is sitting in the shadows as a struggling, acoustic musician who has moved toward spirituality to make up for past sins. On the other side is Kat (played by Molly Parker), who is walking in the sunlight as a successful music advisor for an L.A. television station.

They have not seen each other in twelve years. They used to perform at loose, rowdy concerts under the influence of booze and heroin (shown in black-and-white archive footage at the film’s start.) Now, Vic and Kat are looking at their fragile, dysfunction friendship as older women, vulnerable and filled with regret.

In the film’s blistering 15-minute opening scene, Kat and Vic meet at a chic, urban restaurant. Instead of catching up and reminiscing joyfully, the two get all of the disrespect out on the table until all they are doing is spouting out gutless profanity and insults. (The piercing, ping-pong dialogue comes from the pen of famed Canadian playwright Daniel MacIvor).

What does this opener do? It introduces us to the pain simmering between these two complicated women. Trigger bluntly releases all the tension from the get-go, allowing the two actresses to bounce off each other with verve and insatiable wit.

Parker is wonderful as Kat, a carefree personality who’s having a bit of trouble controlling her demons – the actress’s glassy gaze hints at a deep insecurity within the character. It also helps that Parker has the vocal chops to own the spotlight at a funky stage performance midway through the film.

Make sure to watch out for other Canucks in brief cameos, such as Sarah Polley as a controlling stage manager and Don McKellar (Wright’s real long-time partner) as Vic’s scrounging novelist boyfriend.

Trigger will undoubtedly be remembered as the final tribute to one of this country’s finest actresses, in a role that epitomizes the passion, the class and the overall cool that Wright personified. When she recites a memory about her Scottish lover and their drug-fueled escapades, Wright exerts a brazenness and then an anguish that will be hard for anyone – uninhibited rock star or otherwise – to shake for days.

Wright was right: the destination doesn’t matter. It is her accomplished, high-velocity performance – full of wit, energy and poignancy – that does. One would be hard pressed to imagine a more perfect way to cap off a legendary career.