SYNOPSICS
Niagara Motel (2005) is a English,French,Serbian movie. Gary Yates has directed this movie. Craig Ferguson,Peter Keleghan,Damir Andrei,Wendy Crewson are the starring of this movie. It was released in 2005. Niagara Motel (2005) is considered one of the best Drama movie in India and around the world.
The Niagara Motel and the attached Riverside Grill, located in Niagara Falls, are owned and operated by Serbian father and daughter, the always angry Boris and hard working Sophie. Through the motel and/or restaurant comes a series of disparate but equally struggling people: middle aged couple Henry and Lil, formerly middle class but who are trying to cope with the loss of employment and its associated money; young couple R.J. and Denise, who are trying to clean up (with varying degrees of success) so that they can reclaim their daughter from foster care; and the restaurant's new waitress, young widowed French-Canadian Lori, who is escaping a complicated situation in her hometown and who is preyed upon by two locals, straight-laced Dave and less than straight-laced Michael. The person who sees everything that is going on is the motel's caretaker Phillie, a Scot who stayed in Niagara Falls following a personal tragedy. To escape memory of that tragedy, Phillie is in a constant state of...
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Niagara Motel (2005) Reviews
Good & enjoyable little dark comedy
If you are in the mood for a little black comedy, then this is the right film to watch. It's about the people who is currently living in this motel. The film interweaves between the main 3 storyline(a Waitress's entering to sexy film, a couple trying to get their child back & a husband looking for a new life) & the happenstance in between it. It's definitely entertaining & with a good pace/flow; except for 3-4 seconds the Niagara Falls cut-in scenes, the falls was just too loud. It is Not too artsy nor horribly dark that you just feel sorry for them. It's better than the average film & lives up to the trailer; so if you like the trailer, then check it out.
"Niagara Motels" saved by DVD features
"Niagara Motel" is a hard film to categorize. Its tone fluctuates wildly. Most of the characters have serious problems that for the most part are played straight and seriously but there are some scenes that suddenly turn to flaming black comedy. If you need characters to care about in a movie, they are a bit in short supply here, but there are exceptions. Caroline Dhavernas, in the role of an apparently squeaky clean waitress who is, surprisingly, considering joining the "adult entertainment" industry, is a joy to watch whenever she is on screen. British Actress Anna Friel brings some much needed feistiness to her role as a recovering young drug addict trying to get her child back from a bureaucratic Children's Aide social worker. And Wendy Crewson brings flashes of warmth when her character discovers the hooker next door is both more interesting and nicer than she had imagined. I saw the movie on DVD. Be sure to watch the audio-commentary version and the other various features of the actors and director talking about the various characters after you've watched the main feature (only 88 minutes long). Clearly all the actors really loved their characters. I felt much better about the movie after I learned how the actual scenes developed in process. Amusingly, the city of Niagara Falls (Canada) thought that the movie focused so much on the seediest aspects of the city that they refused to cooperate in its filming. So, the few outdoor scenes that were actually shot in Niagara Falls were shot surreptitiously from the back of a van. Worth watching on DVD with all the extra features. "
Well-worn story saved by impressive performances
Less shabby-chic, more chic-hole, the eponymous motel is home to an assortment of losers drawn to Niagara for anything but the view. Permanently drunk hotel manager Phillie (Craig Ferguson. Annoying.) uses whiskey to hide the pain of losing his wife. Recovering addict Denise (Anna Friel in a very impressively layered performance) wants her baby back. A middle-aged couple argue a bit. Groundbreaking, I'm sure. Well-worn as the story may be, it is rescued by some delightful performances. Friel is a revelation, but it's Canadian beauty Dhavernas who really shines as a naïve waitress on the verge of becoming a low-budget 'adult star'. Never quite as 'darkly comic' or 'genuinely tragic' as it thinks it is, Niagara Motel is the film Todd Solondz would make had he been more popular at school.
Kind of interesting
Judging by the amount of comments, apparently there are only nine or ten of us that have seen this film. It is an interesting piece. Sort of a black comedy with some interesting characters and rather peculiar plot line. I can understand most of the other people in this motel but the middle aged couple does not fit in here. He becomes unemployed as a middle class family and the mother and father have to moved into a cheap and seedy motel? All in all in it's a fun couple of hours but not the movie that you will be telling your friends about. There's a couple of familiar faces but otherwise relatively unknown actors, which in my opinion is a good thing. The fact that it is set in the city of Niagara Falls has very little to do with the story.