Patrick Wang doesn't seem concerned his breakout drama In the Family is opening opposite Dark Knight Rises on Friday.
It won't be the first time his acclaimed three-hour feature debut has competed with a superhero blockbuster, he says - it also played successfully alongside The Avengers at a Chicago theatre.
"There's always something," says Wang with a laugh.
"I think it's great there are a lot of different movies out there."
Indeed, there are. And to the Asian-American director's delight, his nuanced tale of a Tennessee family's reaction to a tragedy has been standing out from the crowd.
"I thought people would like it, but after half a year of disappointing reaction from festivals and distributors, this comes as a nice surprise," says Wang, whose film - now nominated for an Independent Spirit Award - was rejected by several festivals before its première at the Hawaii International Festival last fall, to subsequent acclaim.
The film, which begins a limited engagement Friday at the Caprice, is a natura-
listic portrait of the emotional fallout when Cody (Trevor St. John), a widower who had become involved with Joey, a kindly gay contractor played by Wang, dies in an auto accident.
Although his six-year-old son Chip (Sebastian Brodziak) adored both his dads, a custody battle ensues between Joey and Cody's sister, who uses an outdated legal document to claim custody.
The nomadic filmmaker has been on the road for months as In the Family has slowly been rolled out, its released propelled by word-of-mouth and plaudits from the likes of The Hollywood Reporter, which termed it a "deeply humanistic, profoundly touching work," and Roger Ebert, who raved about Wang's performance and suggested he's a courageous filmmaker to be watched.
Wang, who will participate in Q&A sessions moderated on Friday and Saturday by Jason Whyte, the efilmcritic reviewer who has been championing the film, says seeing audience reaction across North America is eye-opening.
"All these people have ideas of what the 'audience,' is," Wang says. "It's this amorphous idea, but when you're on the road, you get to see what the audience is really like. You get to know a place from the people who pass through its movie theatres."
Whyte, noting In the Family "totally took me by surprise" when he saw it at Whistler Film Festival, said it deserves an audience.
"It's powerful, emotional and funny," he said. "Wang has a very original vision."
The film, which contains no overt references to gay marriage, was never meant to be an "issue" movie, Wang says.
"Its details align with the struggles that a lot of gay couples and families in general face. It's about family dynamics."
The film, which employs flashbacks and has an unhurried pace, has been stylistically compared to Ingmar Bergman's Scenes from a Marriage and films by John Cassavetes.
"[Scenes From a Marriage] has wonderful elements that can teach you," says Wang, confessing he "stole" a lesson from star Liv Ullmann.
"Her performance was a high-water mark. The simplicity and honesty she conveyed, it gave me something to aim for."
As for his film's potentially daunting length, Wang says it wouldn't be the same without it.
"I knew it would make things harder," he admits. "I tried to change it but I fell in love with certain elements that are so unique, they'd be damaged if they became shorter."
While Caprice manager Brian Jupp didn't plan to open In the Family the same weekend as Dark Knight Rises, it's ideal counter-programming.
"The reviews have been amazing. The last time I looked, it was 100 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes. That's almost unheard of."
Jupp has had to be more resourceful since Cineplex's Westshore Cinemas opened last year with first-run attractions.
"We're open to playing anything we feel our customers want to see," said Jupp, who has also shown indies such as The Guard and Take Shelter and implemented "parents and babies shows" every second Wednesday.
"My wife was a big proponent of that," said the first-time father of sixmonth-old Julia with a smile.
In The Family screens at 7 p.m. nightly starting Friday, with 2 p.m. weekend matinées.
