People need something to believe in. Whether it’s a religion, another person, or love, people tend to cling to what they believe most deeply. The King Tide is a story of such belief and how that belief can change both individuals and entire communities.
In the opening scenes, in a small house in a tiny village in the dead of night and in the midst of a storm, a woman suffers a miscarriage. There is little in the way of dialogue, but it’s clear that she is devastated. The implication is that she, Grace (Lara Jean Chorostecki) and her husband, the village’s mayor, Bobby (Clayne Crawford), have been unable to conceive.
As the dawn breaks, Bobby’s best friend, the town’s doctor, Beau (Aden Young), arrives to take Bobby to restore the town’s power. As they discuss the night’s events, they hear a baby crying from the shore, which Bobby dives under a boat to rescue. As he does so, he suffers a gash on his side, which immediately heals in the presence of the baby.
Fast-forward ten years, and the baby, now ten-year-old Isla (Alix West Lefler), is the adopted daughter of Bobby and Grace. Each day, the villagers line up to spend a few minutes in her presence to have their maladies —everything from hangovers to cancer— healed. The village is now cut off from the mainland and technology in general, with Isla also able to call schools of fish for the fishermen.
Life in the village appears idyllic until tragedy strikes; a young member of the community dies while Isla is out on the water with the fishermen. This would be enough to strain any small community, but the follow-on effect of Isla’s powers disappearing outright shatters them, and the villagers fall into two camps: those who realize they’ve been exploiting Isla and those who wish to continue to do so.
It’s a fascinating look at a microcosm of society and how residents react when a thing they feel entitled to is taken away. They’ll consistently argue that continuing to exploit this child is both for her own good and the community’s, but this town has kept her from even learning what France is rather than giving her a full life.
It’s clear from very early on who is going to end up on which side of this divide, and we end up with several good performances, but there are three standouts: Frances Fisher as Faye, Isla’s grandmother and de facto community leader. If you’ve grown up in a small town, you know character’s like Faye, an elder who projects that what she knows is best for all but it is all entirely self-serving. Fisher is able to thread that needle expertly, with her tone and body language emanating a vibe that looks and sounds sweet but feels foul.
The second is Aden Young as Beau, the town doctor. Beau has a clear connection with Isla from the start and yet he is still complicit. His complicity and loss of identity in the community–Isla has eliminated any need for a doctor—have driven him to alcoholism and self-loathing. Once the divide happens, he’s the first to see what’s happening and try to stop it. Young approaches all of this with empathy and openness, which makes his performance perhaps the most believable in the film. It’s easy to see why both he and Fisher are nominated for Canadian Screen Awards for their roles.
The third is Alix West Lefler as Isla. At just 12 years old, her character is placed at the centre of a cult, and her arc brings her from a place of not understanding to one where she does, and it’s a great performance from someone so young. When everything goes to pot in the third act, her reactions are well portrayed, especially since that third act is more shocking than you are probably imagining.
There’s also a who’s who of Canadian character acting talent rounding out the cast including Michael Greyeyes, Ryan McDonald, Emily Piggford, Kathryn Greenwood, and more.
Through it all, director Christian Sparkes captures both the scope and feeling of living in a small but tight-knit community. There’s authenticity to how the characters behave around each other and the closeness with which they speak and act, even when antagonistic. The tone of these scenes at the end is nearly pitch-perfect, and the script by writers Kevin Coughlin, Ryan Grassby, and Albert Shin does a great job of revealing what each individual wants to present themselves as and who they actually are.
Combined with the performances and the stark but stunning landscapes of Newfoundland, The King Tide is an excellent character study, a shocking thriller, and a great Canadian film as a result.
The King Tide is out now across Canada.
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