The Lotus Eaters (film)
| The Lotus Eaters | |
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| Directed by | Paul Shapiro |
| Written by | Peggy Thompson |
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Running time
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101 minutes |
| Country | Canada |
| Language | English |
The Lotus Eaters is a Canadian drama film, released in 1993. Written by Peggy Thompson and directed by Paul Shapiro. The film stars R. H. Thomson and Sheila McCarthy as Hal and Diana Kingswood, a married couple living on Galiano Island in British Columbia in the 1960s, with their two daughters, Cleo (Tara Frederick) and Zoe (Aloka McLean).
The story is told mostly through the eyes of Zoe, the younger Kingswood daughter. The Kingswoods seem to live a happy life, though teenage Cloe is frustrated with an inability to do things, like travel to Vancouver to see the Beatles. A catalyst for change for their somewhat stagnant lives arrives in the form of Anne-Marie (Michèle-Barbara Pelletier), Zoe's new teacher at the school where Hal Kingswood is principal.
Anne-Marie arrives late on her first day of work with all of her belongings packed into her Volkswagen bus. She takes up residence in a local cottage with a long history of cheating lovers. The new teacher shakes up the little school with progressive ideas, much to the irritation of Hal the staid and stodgy principal.
Zoe (and most of her class) are immediately delighted with the lovely and vivacious young Anne-Marie who teaches them through song and art. One evening, Anne-Marie invites Zoe over to her little cottage. As Anne-Marie bathes in her wood-fired, outdoor bathtub, she gives Zoe a book of spells, which is ostensibly the mechanism through which change comes to the sleepy little island. Change is relatively mild at first - Cloe gets her first boyfriend, Dwayne Spittle, and Zoe learns how to make the wind gust.
Real change comes to Galiano Island when Hal discovers (thanks to Zoe) that his long dead father hasn't been dead for decades, as previously presumed, and only recently died (his ashes were shipped to Hal's mother). Hal's father abandoned Hal and his mother, Flora (Frances Hyland), when Hal was a child. Hal is rocked by the revelation of his father's abandonment, the fact that his father was alive, and his mother's lies. The combination of the shock of Hal's father's death and Hal's anger at a lifteime of lies lead Flora to suffer a stroke.
Hal is in a tailspin after his father's death and his mother's stroke. When he chances upon Anne-Marie crying in her bus, he takes a moment to learn more about her. He discovers that she abandoned her fiance at the altar and that her mother calls her every morning to remind her that she is a disappointment. As Anne-Marie talks of wanting to sail away to Mexico, Hal joins in and the two of them share a kiss, which scares both of them.
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