Re: Uniting - A Gen-X Big Chill? Sort of, But Maybe a More Inward Look at Midlife

By Christ Knight

Rating: A-

The drama Re:Uniting is tricky to write about. There are two shouted, single-sentence exclamatory revelations late in the film, and it wouldn’t do to say what they are or even who is doing the exclaiming.

So, I will do what most write-ups and reviews seem to have done, which is to say that at least two of the characters in Re: Uniting have life-altering news to deliver. The nature of said disclosures, and the way everyone else reacts, is what drives the drama forward.

They’re a chronologically similar bunch, all late vintage GenX-ers having  a 25-year college reunion (Or should that be re: union?) on picturesque Bowen Island, B.C.

Carmen Moore, Michelle Harrison and Bronwen Smith pick up where they lett off in Re: Uniting

Rachel (Michelle Harrison) and her husband (Jesse L. Martin) are hosting. Carrie (Bronwen Smith) is there alone because her husband is looking after the kids. Natalie (Carmen Moore) is there alone because she’s a driven neurosurgeon with no time for a husband or kids. Collin (Roger Cross) is a sports announcer looking to get into morning TV. Danny (David James Lewis) is his assistant.

Everyone drinks, smokes up, dances and generally lets go, accompanied by some rockin’ ‘90s hits - This Is How We Do It by Montell Jordan, Right Here Right Now by Jesus Jones, Tal Bachman’s She’s So High, etc. There is some mild flirtation, a stolen kiss, recriminations and regrets, and those two bombshells. That’s one more than Oppenheimer!

I’d say the whole affair, written and directed by Laura Adkin, has a bit of a neo Big Chill vibe, but that’s not fair to either movie. Re: Uniting may be a story of a generation, but it’s not trying to be THE story of its generation, and it would be wrong to judge it thusly.

Mind you, it does have some trenchant, cogent things to say about the choices and decisions we make early in life and must then co-exist with for the rest of it, for better or worse, until death takes us. And surely ones 40s are a time for ruminating (or ru: minating) on the path not taken, and on the more existential fear of time running out. They don’t call it midlife for nothing.

My biggest complaint with the film is that its dialogue is a little too on-the-nose. These friends haven’t all been together in something like eight years, and this little gathering is just one weekend long, and yet there are several too-perfect speeches that pour forth about the children they had (or didn’t) and the people they wound up with (or didn’t).

It’s all just a touch too synchronous and convenient, as though the wine contained more than the usual amount of truth serum. Also, for all the talk of children, there’s little mention of parents, the other half of the classic middle-aged sandwich.

But it’s still a lovely tale, likely to resonate most strongly with those of a similar generational disposition — let’s say mid-30s to late 50s, depending on your biological age and levels of anxiety.

Leave the kids at home for this one, and don’t tell the old folks. They will have, or have had, their own moments like this.

Re: Uniting. Directed by Laura Adkin. Starring Michelle Harrison, Bronwen Smith, and Roger Cross. Opens March 15 in theatres.