Whirligig wraps up filming in Halifax, Dartmouth

By Jon Tattrie - The Weekly News
A feature film being shot in HRM this spring tells the story of a young man returning to Nova Scotia and finding himself stuck between being a child and being a man.
Whirligig was written by Michael Amo, who previously wrote the CTV/NBC show The Listener. The Dartmouth resident says the tale of Nicholas, who has an affair with a married, older woman, will be familiar to many Baby Boomers and their Boomerang kids.
Nicholas, played by Toronto's Gregory Smith, went off to explore the world before returning home in his 20s. He decides to crash at his parents' house, but they've moved and not left a forwarding address. He eventually tracks them down on the Eastern Shore and moves into their barn.
"Once upon a time, when I was 25, I was in Japan and I came home to live in my parents' basement. This was sort of inspired by that, the most challenging year of my life. It probably wasn't much fun for my parents, either," Amo says. "I remember hitting a wall and just having no sense of how to move forward with my life. Every plan or ambition I had just didn't work out. The challenge for him is to regroup enough to figure out who he is."
Nicholas catches the eye of Mina, played by Halifax's Fiona Highet, and they have an affair. For her, it's a bit of boredom-breaking fun, but Nicholas sees their "relationship" as a chance to make a man of himself. The deluded man-child tries to win her heart by befriending her 12-year-old son.
"Anyone who's got any sense at all can see that it's a very bad plan," Amo says.
Like many 20-somethings, Nicholas is trapped in an extended adolescence. "He's returned to his childhood, but he's really not supposed to be there."
Whirligig, which takes its name from the feet-spinning lawn ornaments, shows his struggle to get traction and finally move out of childhood.
"It's a near catastrophe for everyone," Amo says.
At 48, the married father of two says it is possible to eventually grow up.
"I've got a bit of perspective," he says.
Whirligig has been shooting on location in Three Fathom Harbour, downtown Dartmouth and around York Redoubt.
Nicholas's family home is in Three Fathom and movie magic turns a Portuguese Cove home into Mina's place.
It's the third time Armdale-born director Chaz Thorne has cast Nova Scotia as itself in the movies, having done it before in Poor Boy's Game and Just Buried.
"We found an unbelievable house out here that was built in 1816 that we're shooting in," he says during a filming break in Three Fathoms.
"Admittedly, it's challenging to chose to make a life here as a filmmaker, particularly a feature-film maker. This is a remote part of the world, compared to the majority of the feature-film business coming out of Los Angeles," Thorne says. "For me, my passion lies here because this is where I'm from, this is where my parents are from, this is where my grandparents and great-grandparents are from. I feel that we have stories to tell here and locations to show and amazing artists to work with."
Whirligig was set to wrap up shooting by the end of March. No release date has yet been set.
jon@jontattrie.ca