Never Steady, Never Still

Shirley Henderson's sensitive performance as a woman with Parkinson's disease grounds this spartan family drama set in the Canadian wilderness.

Kathleen Hepburn's sensitive, spartan family drama centres around the disparate lives of a family living in the Canadian wilderness. Judy (Shirley Henderson) has been living with Parkinson's disease for nearly two decades, adopting various strategies to successfully navigate daily life. But her world is rocked by the sudden death of her husband, leaving her teenage son Jamie as her primary carer. But Jamie (Théodore Pellerin) has his own issues to manoeuvre. Working in the unforgiving, macho environs of the Alberta oil fields, he's in the midst of processing his own masculinity and sexuality.

Anchored around Henderson's committed, carefully crafted performance, Hepburn's debut feature eludes an eerie, ethereal atmosphere. Using the rugged terrain of British Columbia as a key player in the drama, Hepburn's ensemble portrait evinces the tender fragility of identity, family and life itself.