Mary Walsh Movies

A cop haunted by an accidental killing begins looking into a murder case that's nearly 40 years old in this crime drama from Australian director Cate Shortland. Richard Treloar (Richard Roxburgh) is a police detective who is thrown into an emotional tailspin after a shooting incident. When Treloar has trouble handling his responsibilities, he's reassigned to the police force's museum, where he's to help curate a photography exhibit. While going though prints for the upcoming show, Treloar notices an attractive blonde woman keeps popping up in pictures from the mid-'60s, ending with a crime-scene photo of her after she was shot to death. Treloar becomes curious about who she was and what became of her, and discovers her murder was never solved, prompting him to begin looking into the case. Meanwhile, Treloar's emotional problems and new obsession with the mysterious blonde lead to serious problems in his relationship with his girlfriend, Helen (Alice McConnell), which only get worse when he becomes infatuated with his psychiatrist (Essie Davis). The Silence was originally produced for Australian television, but its success with both audiences and critics led to a subsequent theatrical release; the film had its North American premiere at the 2006 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Old World values collide with modern-day questions of sexual orientation in this ethnic comedy. Mambo Italiano tells the story of Angelo, a neurotic twentysomething preoccupied with the usual post-adolescent concerns: his job, his creative aspirations as a writer, and his longing to get out of his parents' house. He finally decides to take the plunge on his last goal, a decision that makes parents Gino (Paul Sorvino) and Maria (Ginette Reno) none too happy; they're not about to let one of their offspring leave the house without getting married. What they don't know is that Angelo is gay, a secret he's been keeping from everyone but his understanding older sister Anna (Claudia Ferri). A greater shock yet to the family is that Angelo is moving in with longtime crush Nino (Peter Miller), a local policeman whose sexuality is at odds with his macho profession. As the two lovebirds struggle to make sense of their relationship, both of their families chime in with opinions both helpful and not-so-helpful as they struggle to come to terms with their sons' new lives. Shot and set in Montreal, Mambo Italiano premiered stateside at the 2003 New York Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide

Violet (Mary Walsh) is approaching her 55th birthday with a particularly pronounced sense of dread. As her parents, grandparents, and husband all died when they reached the magic number, Violet takes to her bed for weeks on end. However, everyone else around her continues to live their life: her gay son Carlos finds himself smitten with an Italian, her daughter Ramona plans her wedding, and her other son Rex chases any woman who crosses his path. Meanwhile, Rusty (Peter MacNeill), a farm manager, pursues the bedridden Violet, and Violet's nasty Uncle Ed and his loathsome daughter scheme to make Violet's valuable country property their own. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide

While imagining the childhood of Andy Warhol, Lou Reed once wrote, "There's only one good thing about a small town: you hate it, and you know you have to leave." A similar notion seems to have occurred to Mooney Pottie (Liane Balaban), a 15-year-old Canadian girl growing up in a village deep in the rugged coal mining area of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Mooney wants to be an artist and feels out of place among the rough-hewn villagers and her unsophisticated family. When her art teacher, Cecil Sweeney (Andrew McCarthy), tells her that he could arrange for her to attend an art institute in Manhattan, her parents refuse to allow her to go. Stranded in a place she hates, Mooney finally discovers a kindred spirit when new girl Lou (Tara Spencer Nairn) moves into the neighborhood. Lou's father was a boxer from Brooklyn, and she's inherited his talent for fisticuffs; Lou has a way with a sucker punch that soon has all the girls in town begging her to knock out their boyfriends when they get out of line. Mooney and Lou soon team up on a plan that will allow them to move on to bigger and better things. Canadian filmmaker Allan Moyle returned home for this comedy set in the mid-1970s, which features a soundtrack of classic Canadian rock, including vintage tracks by April Wine and The Stampeders. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Members of Canada's groundbreaking improvisational comedy troupe CODCO helped create this broad black comedy about a small Canadian community's unique bid to become a world power. Solomon Gundy is a small island off the Atlantic Coast of Canada whose economy is built around fishing. A government researcher determines that Canada's fish production needs to be cut by four percent -- and since Solomon Gundy produces four percent of the nation's catch, the government simply decides to suspend all fishing licenses for the Island. Needless to say, this decision is wildly unpopular with the locals, and Dexter (Maury Chaykin), the Federal official who has to break the bad news to the town, nearly gets lynched for his troubles. Augustus (Paul Gross), who acts as Solomon Gundy's mayor when he isn't busy officiating at the local church or running the miniature golf course, decides to take the bull by the horns and rallies the townspeople to declare their independence from Canada. As fate would have it, a group of Russian sailors gone AWOL happen by the Island, and Augustus is able to buy their submarine from the sole crewman left on board (Tommy Sexton). Augustus soon discovers the sub still has a cache of tactical missiles on board, making the newly independent Solomon Gundy a nuclear superpower. Also released as Northern Extremes, Burried on Sunday proved to be the final film role for founding CODCO member Tommy Sexton, who died of AIDS-related illnesses in 1993. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The great achievement of The Boys of St. Vincent is not that it deals with the controversial subject of pedophilia among Catholic clergy, but that it deals with that subject so honestly, without resorting to melodramatics. At the core of this powerful film lies Henry Czerny's searing performance as Brother Peter Lavin. Czerny deftly shows in the film's first half how Lavin used the double-edged sword of adult and religious authority to intimidate his charges. And in the second half, when Lavin is confronted with the monstrousness of his crimes, Czerny's ability to construct a plausible set of denials (if you had seen only this part of the film, you might be tempted to believe him) lifts the film above a simple case study. Lavin's character, a man who translated his own troubled childhood into pain and affliction for others, is one of the most fascinating psychological studies in contemporary film. Co-writer and director John N. Smith is also to be praised for tamping down the urge to embroider this story with unnecessary flourishes. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide