Hoax for the Holidays (Region 1 Edition)   Starring: Callum Keith Rennie, Martha MacIsaac and Ricky Mabe MTI Home Video RRP: $24.95 039414521658 Certificate: Not Rated Available 01 November 2011

Casey McCullen works a dead end job in a fast food franchise trying to support her father who has lost focus following a death in the family. A consummate individual,Casey stands apart from the rest of the town, who are deeply religious, to the point of disliking their new priest as some of his ideas are considered ‘modern’. Her life changes when she, in frustration, throws her coffee at a wall, leaving a splash which she claims is the image of Christ. The claim fractionalises the community with most of the community willing to believe the lie...

Hoax for the Holidays (2010 - 1 hr, 34 min, 20 sec) is a drama, directed by George Mihalka from a Josh MacDonald script.

Initially, when I read the PR blurb, I was expecting a comedy, oddly enough the makers have decided to approach the subject as a drama, not that there isn’t some amusing aspects in the obvious discomfort of the new vicar in a town who really don’t like their young vicar making jokes during mass.

The film is an independent, although you would not have realised as it as the direction, though not innovative, is adequate for the subject and for the most part the acting matches the aspirations of the movie.

The film is mostly carried by Martha MacIsaac (Casey), who plays the usual small town loner, who has more intelligence than the people she has to deal with in the coffee shop. The town of Nately, Nova Scotia, is the kind of fictional environment, with quirky caricatured characters reminiscent of Due South, which also displayed the same odd sense of humour. Her father Donald McCullen (Callum Keith Rennie) and friend Jansen Block (Ricky Mabe) have appeared in better films, but their contribution raises the film's acting quotient and helps bolster what is mostly a collection of unknown actors.

I still think that the film would have worked better as an outright comedy. As a drama you’re expecting the film to say something about religion. There is a lot of the script given over to the town’s reaction to the supposed miracle, but the point that the writer and director were trying to make is generally lost. This in not helped by the ending where religious fervour turns to witch hunting, do the makers’ think religion is a good or bad thing, from this film we may never know.

I only got a screener, but from the PR sheet it looks like the finished disc will have no extras, but will include a 16:9 widescreen picture with a 5.1 DD Surround Sound audio track.

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Charles Packer