Nothing says romance like snow and socials

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 11/02/2021 (2047 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s a few days shy of Valentine’s Day, but you can get a jump on the calendar’s most romantic date with a WFP Movie Night free screening of Sean Garrity’s I Propose We Never See Each Other Again After Tonight at 7 p.m. on Thursday.

In its way, it may be the most romantic Winnipeg film ever. And the WFP Movie Night — a collective online viewing of the locally shot film that offers the ability to chat with other viewers and the filmmakers — certainly has the potential to inspire warm-and-fuzzy feelings for the following five reasons:

1. It almost qualifies as dinner and a date.

The Free Press partnered with GoodLocal.ca — a website that sells homemade goods from local small businesses — to develop a snack box full of fun treats from local vendors that you can order on the site for pickup prior to the screening. The $25 package includes goodies from Flour and Flower (white chocolate pretzel stems with edible flowers), Nutty Club (blue whales and pink popcorn) and Norget (cream soda and root beer).

If you want to commit to making dinner yourself, the film’s Mennonite/Filipino romantic pairing might inspire something along the lines of farmer sausage and pancit noodles. It could work.

2. The Winnipeg meet-cute

In the beginning of the 14A film, designated lovers-to-be Iris DelaCruz (Hera Nalam) and Simon Friesen (Kristian Jordan) meet in the Exchange District, pushing a car over an icy windrow. They talk, they go for a drink and they proceed to overshare their secrets after Iris suggests the titular proposal. (Of course, if they stuck to that agreement, there wouldn’t be a movie.)

3. A climactic scene is set at that most romantic of Winnipeg institutions: the social.

Iris’s sister Agnes (local theatre star Andrea Macasaet) is about to get married to an awkward, touchy-feely fiancé (Aaron Pridham), and that instigates a lot of family drama, not only between the sisters but between Iris and her mother (Mithus Mallari), who disapproves of Iris’s intention to move in with Simon. (It gives the movie a nice touch of Romeo and Juliet conflict, without the bloody outcome.) Ultimately, the whole thing resolves at Agnes’s wedding social, which will strikes notes of familiarity to anyone who has ever endured the banquet hall rite-of-marital-passage.

4. Hera Nalam is a romantic heroine of Meg Ryan proportions.

Our Free Press critic — that would be me — wrote: “Hera Nalam is the main reason to see the film. Nalam is no manic pixie dream girl. She keeps Iris’s emotions grounded, making her entirely relatable, especially in her battles with her disapproving mom. But Nalam has big-time charm onscreen. She’s by turns funny, earthy, sexy and poignantly vulnerable.”

There’s a chance she and co-star Kristian Jordan will be participating in the chat portion of the Movie Night. Certainly director Sean Garrity will be participating if you have any questions.

5. Three little words…

Destined to strike an almost erotic chord in the hearts of any Winnipegger: it is free.

Just register your email address at winnipegfreepress.com/movie-night. We will send you all the need-to-know information, including the password you’ll need to access the film tonight.

 

randall.king@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @FreepKing