Nancy Norman
Special to The Chief
In Squamish, we sometimes have the curious opportunity of being extras in movies, with the potential of spotting ourselves on the big screen.
Deluxe Combo Platter was just that - a locally filmed project ripe with familiar faces - I caught myself in various scenes. Set in Squamish, the characters refer to the town a handful of times. Scenes are set in the recognizable locales of the Cliffside Pub, Britannia Beach's 99er (renamed Hog Chow Diner), the no longer standing Elks Hall, Municipal Hall, the Chief, Shannon Falls, and more.
The movie tells the story of Eve (Marla Sokoloff) a shy, pudgy artist and heiress of the local Hog-Chow Diner, with a long-term case of the hots for local pretty boy Jeff (Barry Watson) who predictably doesn't return her affection. Jeff finally realizes his love for Eve but only after Linda (Monica Schnarre), a visiting, big-city developer and lesbian, showers Eve with attention. Linda eventually helps Eve find her confidence and a place in New York's art world, where she and Jeff live together, happily.
If this sounds like a shallow description of the storyline, that's likely because the plot itself was simple and somewhat predictable, and the characters were disappointingly underdeveloped. Marla Sokoloff does, however, play the role of the shy, sweet, self-deprecating Eve well, and Jennifer Tilly (Eve's "Auntie Alma") and Dave Thomas ("Red", Alma's man/local mortician) were definitely responsible for the films' scattered comic moments.
I appreciated Deluxe Combo Platter mostly for its local context and representation (regardless of use of US money in a scene) but the movie also provided a surprisingly fresh perspective of a somewhat typical love story, with pleasantly un-redneck treatment of homosexuality in a small town. Check it out.
