The Ottawa Citizen from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada • 59

INSIDE: Keefs confession, F2 Comics, F5 Weather IV, F6 Editor Peter Simpson, 613-726-5826 artsthecitizen.canwestcom WEDNESDAY, APRIL 4, 2007 THE OTTAWA CITIZEN SECTION .4 i.xf?r I ')" Av Maw. jF I Mary Walsh plays Millie Bishop in the film Young Triffie, which she also directs. 'I think the darker it Is, the funnier it she says of the comedy written for the stage by Newfoundland essayist Ray Guy. Tie dark secrets of Mary Walsh The acerbic comic confesses to being OK with all the bodies Walsh has carved a reputation in the Canadian cultural community as a woman who not only speaks her mind, but generally finds humour in the taboos Canadians don't dare touch. Walsh has no qualms comparing Prime Minister Stephen Harper to "300 pounds of condemned veal" even when she's not in her warrior princess garb as Marg De-tlahunty.

She has no problem calling former head of the Motion Picture Association of America Jack Valenti a "culture czar" who pushed Canada into a corner. More shocking, Walsh has no problem fessing up to a love for Canadian cinema and Canadian television. "A million Canadians used to tune in to The Beachcombers every week. More than a mil lion Canadians used to watch the CBC news every single night. That was in the day when the government really used to invest in culture, and support Canadian production instead of buying cheap American sitcoms and reality television," Walsh says.

"Comedy seems to be the one place we can still make our mark." Walsh turns to Ewanuick, the tstar of Young Triffie, who plays Hank on Corner Gas, one of the more successful Canadian comedies to come around since the heyday of Nick, Relic and Molly's Reach. "I think we're seeing a lot more Canadians watch Canadian television," Ewanuick says. "Corner Gas averages about 1.5 million viewers a week. That's good, and it means the audi once you finally stop asking the question, it's no longer an issue. "I think we faced extra challenges because we're such a large nation but that leads back to our fascination with isolation, which turns out to be a pretty big theme in most Canadian literature and film.

"You know, the truth of it is we're not people who go 'Rah! Rah! Hurray "We're the kind of people who sit back and wait for the other guy to fall and why not? It could be funny." Walsh says when Young Triffie first started on the page as a play in Newfoundland, it was focused on colonialism and the looming assimilation awaiting Newfoundlanders. See WALSH on PAGE F6 ence is there. It also means you can set a show in Canada and still succeed, because people want something that reflects their own experience their own sense of humour." Walsh sits perfectly erect as she jumps in with her next thought. "You know, for the longest time all the time I was growing up and long after the one thing you always heard about whenever intellectuals would sit around and talk was the nature of the Canadian identity," she says. "We'd all go blue in the face wondering if we existed as a culture or not.

Who are we?" Walsh howls, with faux melodrama. "You don't hear that anymore. I think we all realized we do know who we are. We've always known who we are, and in bringing Young Triffie to the big screen. "Let's face it, we're a small country and a lot of Canada is dark and unpeopled, and pretty much cold and barren, so in a culture that is so dominated by the landscape, I find the darker elements in this film to be perfectly appropriate," says Walsh.

"I think it's important to deal with the dark side in movies, and it's something movies on the whole are loathe to do especially American movies." An artist, performer, talk show host, political avenger, comedian and now film director, BY KATHERINE MONK Canadian film has a special rapport with corpses: they dot our cinematic landscape and give it relief, cutting great canyons between life and death, and constantly urging our unconventional screen characters to embrace the dark side in order to find the light. It's a bit of a backward equation, but for Mary Walsh and Fred Ewanuick, the mix of light and dark, life and death not to mention human and ungulate turned out to be one of the more rewarding elements Swank fell for surprisingly 'smart' thriller 1 (Is Vf. The Reaping turns out to be horror with a few twists BY JAMIE PORTMAN CENTURY CITY, California The script came to Hilary Swank last winter, a week before the Oscar ceremony that would honour Million Dollar Baby for best picture and bestow a second acting award on her. As a nominee, Swank was in the midst of pre-Oscar frenzy. It wasn't the time for reading new scripts especially one like The Reaping, which appeared to be just a horror movie.

But veteran producer Joel Silver was insistent. "I want you to read this right now!" he told her. "Can't it wait?" she pleaded. "No, right now!" ordered Silver, a producer with a reputation for getting his way. So Swank obeyed and she was bowled over by the screenplay by brothers Carey and Chad Hayes.

"It was such a surprise a supernatural thriller that's so smart," she tells reporters now. "I remember it being a real page-turner and really enjoying it and not seeing some of the twists and turns." She added: "You know, it's hard to fool me. It just is, because I've read a lot of scripts just as you guys have seen a lot of movies, and I'm sure it's hard to fool you too I loved that I didn't see some stuff coming." More recently, she has loved attending preview screenings with filmgoers who have no idea of what they're in for espe cially the shock ending. The Reaping opens tomorrow. She remembers one night sitting beside director Stephen Hopkins and a man behind them got over-excited.

Hopkins was jet-lagged and had seen the movie a million times and decided to grab a little shut-eye while the movie pursued its sinister course. "And all of a sudden, the guy behind him became so freaked out that he kicked Stephen in the back of the head!" Joel Silver's Dark Castle company normally specializes in popcorn chillers like House on Haunted Hill and House of Wax, but the veteran producer is quick to emphasize that The Reaping is not your conventional horror thriller. "It's a little more sophisticated than what we've done before at Dark Castle, on top of being a scary movie," he says. He also wanted some A-level talent attached to it, which is why he went after two-time Oscar winner Swank to portray Katherine Winter, a former minister who loses her faith after her daughter and husband are killed while on a religious mission to the Sudan. As the film begins, Swank is a university academic who has given up on prayer and religious faith in favour of scientific proof.

She now travels the world, investigating so-called "miracles" and debunking them revealing the cold truth behind the weeping statuary, the palms that bleed, the blind whose sight is restored. See THRILLER on PAGE F2 Hilary Swank Is a former minister turned academic In Joel Silver's The Reaping, which opens tomorrow. UPCOMING Scotlabank PkKe' Vint! Ottawa Senaton n. Pittsburgh Tomorrow 9 7:30 p.m Harry Connie Jr. and hit Big Band April 17 0 8pm.

Visit scotlabankplace.com (or your chance to WIN 2 tickets to see Harry Connlck Jr. John Mayer April 20 7:30 p.m. My Chemical Romanes May 10 7 p.m. Visit Kotlabankplace.com for your chance to WIN 2 ticket! to see My Chemical Romance. Andre Rleu May 1 1 7 p.m.

CHANGE '07 featuring Delirious? May 23 7 m. Roger Waten June 4 0 8 p.m. Thomoe I Friends Llvel On Stage June 15 June 18. Four Exciting Showsl Charley Pride June 1 7 7 30 p.m. faith Hill ft Tim McOraw June 27 7 30 p.m.

111 1MIW1 LIVEll (i.m 11 tw TICKETS ON SALE NOW! TICKETS ON SALE N0WI 11 ifft TICKETS ON SALE NOW! 613-599-FANS 877 -788 -FANS oj.fi imriiunvti' Irvntlnns or fieollabank Plnra ttnn nnma.