BYE BYE BLUES Movie Review

1989 Anne Wheeler

The characters and conflicts in this story of the World War II homefront can be traced back as far as Homer's Odyssey, but writer-director Anne Wheeler tells it from an unusual point of view—western Canadian. That setting and a certain no-nonsense approach give a fresh quality to familiar material.

It begins in India with the arrival of a piano. Army doctor Teddy Cooper (Michael Ontkean) buys it for his wife Daisy (Rebecca Jenkins), who tries to teach herself how to play. Some months later in 1942, he is transferred to a more dangerous, secret posting. She, their two young children, and the instrument go back to the Canadian prairie. (Though the plot bears some superficial similarities to Jane Campion's The Piano, Bye Bye Blues has nothing to do with that overrated bodice-ripper.) Daisy moves back in with her parents but finds the transition troubling. India was hot and heavily populated. Canada is cold and empty. More to the point, in India, Daisy and Teddy were rich. In Canada, she's poor. Then she learns that Teddy was stationed in Singapore and it has been occupied by the Japanese. She doesn't know whether he's alive or dead, and the government can tell her nothing.

Hoping to earn a little money, she talks her way into a tryout with Slim Godfrey's (Stuart Margolin) little combo. It's not much of a band, but it's about all there is in that remote corner of the country. The same night that Daisy makes her inauspicious debut, a stranger, Max Gramley (Luke Reilly), asks to sit in on trombone. Astonishingly, their stumbling renditions of dance tunes are a hit with the crowd. The Stardusters set off on the rough road to fame and fortune. Will Daisy be a “grass widow,” faithful to a far-away husband or his ghost, take care of the kids, and obey her overbearing father? Or will she be a singer who hangs out with jazz musicians, smokes cigarettes, and wears slinky spaghetti-strap gowns?

The band's side of the film follows the typical showbiz success trajectory. The unfamiliar locations make it different, and it serves as a reflection of the larger changes that the war brings to backwater Canada—the same changes that many North Americans experienced in one way or another. The band has a strong aura of authenticity, too. The musicians aren't miraculously transformed into a small, polished version of the Ellington orchestra. They sound like talented semi-professional provincials who play music that people can dance to.

That care with accuracy follows through in accents and period details. Visually, Wheeler favors soft light and she makes full use of the dramatic prairie sky and rolling landscape. Though the film was made for a modest budget, it was spent wisely. With the plot details, she is able to be more honest about the emotional, familial, sexual, and financial realities of the war than the films of the '40s were. The conclusion will strike some as overly dramatic, but that's not a significant flaw. With strong performances, evocative style, and well-drawn believable characters, Bye Bye Blues is a solid sleeper.

Cast: Rebecca Jenkins (Daisy Cooper), Michael Ontkean (Teddy Cooper), Luke Reilly (Max Gramley), Stuart Margolin (Slim Godfrey), Robyn Stevan (Frances Cooper), Kate Reid (Mary Wright), Wayne Robson (Pete), Shiela Moore (Doreen Cooper), Leon Pownall (Bernie Blitzer), Vincent Gale (Will Wright), Susan Sneath (Joyce Kuchera); Written by: Anne Wheeler; Cinematography by: Vic Sarin; Music by: George Blondheim. Producer: Arvi Liimatainen, Anne Wheeler, Allarcom Ltd. Canadian. Awards: Genie Awards '90: Best Actress (Jenkins), Best Supporting Actress (Stevan). Boxoffice: $161,323. MPAA Rating: PG. Running Time: 110 minutes. Format: VHS.