It is up to Yoli and, to a lesser extent, their mother Lottie, to come up with reasons why Elf should live.Īs the story unfolds, we discover that Elf always identified with her dad, Jake, an idealist, who found their Methodist community too traditional and narrow-minded but struggled to find ways to open it up.

Now I’m wondering if audiences will want to extend as much empathy as Alison Pill’s Yoli Von Riesen, a struggling novelist, does to her sister Elf (Elfreide), who has become a phenomenally successful pianist but wants to end her life. Perhaps this is a pandemic issue, one that wouldn’t have been raised a couple of years ago. The question that dogs this brilliant melodrama, so well-acted and shot, is a basic one: do you want to spend your time in the throes of psychological misery?

So goes the acclaimed novel by Miriam Toews and director-writer Michael McGowan follows her lead to perfection in his film adaptation of the very Canadian All My Puny Sorrows. To know the Von Riesens is to love them and you do: that’s the narrative’s expectation (in both film and book), as their tragic fates unfold. Mainly suicides, although there’s a fatal heart attack and a messy divorce thrown in for good measure. Starring: Alison Pill (Yoli Von Riesen), Sarah Gadon (Elf), Amybeth McNulty (Nora), Mare Winningham (Lottie), Donal Logue (Jake), Mimi Kuzk (Tina), Aly Mawji (Nic)ĭeath stalks the gifted Von Riesen family. Michael McGowan, director and writer based on the novel by Miriam Toews All My Puny Sorrows and Secrets of Dumbledore

Miriam toews all my puny sorrows review