After a hard night’s work meeting customers in bars and clubs, Welles is totally loaded. He is also carrying barrel full of pills. He could have at least offered some to Nathalie after running her over. Very pregnant, the French Canadian had woken up alarmed by early contractions. With her workaholic husband not answering his phone, she had been trying to hail a cab when Welles struck her going the wrong way on her street.
Though the baby was killed, the hospital does not induce delivery, claiming concern for her overall health. Naturally, still carrying her deceased daughter causes much psychological trauma for Nathalie, essentially spelling the end of her marriage. Fortunately, she makes a new friend, who is Johnny-on-the-spot when she needs a bit of support at the local pub: the apparently generous and nonjudgmental Welles. Thus begins their chaste courtship, unfolding as the police pursue the hit-and-run driver.
Given the rather awkward truth, the audience spends the entire film anticipating the big confessional scene. When it finally arrives, writer-director Chow (pictured below) displays a deft touch, largely avoiding the histrionics viewers have been dreading. In fact, it is impressively honest and matter-of-fact scene. Unfortunately, the long set-up of their quirky but sensitive getting-to-know-you period quickly becomes tiresome and repetitive.
Scrubs’ Zach Braff is just about passable as the sad-eyed pill-pusher, but not exactly a revelation here. In contrast, Isabelle Blais is quite good as Nathalie, expressing a broad gamut of emotion with convincing restraint. However, Chow’s real find might be Julian Lo, who makes a strong impression as Johnny, Welles’s teenaged delivery-boy neighbor, whom he inadvertently pulls into his legal quagmire.
