HAILEY ROSE

SANDI SOMERS | CANADA | 2023 | 93 MIN | ENGLISH

Hailey has made an unharried life in Calgary with her non-binary partner, but is summoned home to Nova Scotia after ten years away. There, she sets off on a wild goose chase for her drowned father’s boat, dodging the wacky “blood relatives” she thought she had shaken off for good. 

Hailey Rose has the absurdist humour and small-town-but-big-hearts warmth of the cult classic Drop Dead Gorgeous, and the surprising heft of tragedies unveiled. Kept sane by her lover Syd (Riley Reign), Hailey (Em Haine) runs the gauntlet of colourful “backwoods” characters to try and evade her needy sister (Caitlynne Medrek) and foul-mouthed, advice-doling mother (Kari Matchett) long enough to secure what’s owed her in her father’s newly discovered will. The last thing she expects is to be drawn into the lives of those she cast off, including that of her ex, “Cole basically left at the altar” (Josh Cruddas), whose limp and missing teeth reflect a deeper mystery about the years they’ve spent apart. Like it or not, Hailey must face the ramifications of her past actions and become reacquainted with who her real “family” is.

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