Spinster – An Unconventional, Cynical, and Uneventful Romcom (Early Review)

Spinster follows the story of Gaby (Peretti) a single woman on the verge of hitting her 40s and is desperate to find love. After a short relationship ends, Gaby spends the last year of her 30s trying to fit into the pressures of societal norms like marriage and kids. With everyone’s lives around her moving forward, Gaby fears becoming a spinster after a frenzy of failed dates leaving her to seek another way to fulfill her life, even if that doesn’t involve romance.

The word spinster typically has a bad connotation thrown its way as it describes an unmarried woman who hasn’t necessarily adhered to the norms of society (marriage, house, and family). Basically live the misogynist dream. This heavy negativity towards a spinster lifestyle would appear to be the opposite of the cheeriness of a typical romantic comedy, but this is not your average rom-com thanks to the lead performance and choice of location.

Peretti, of Brooklyn Nine-Nine fame, thrived as a supporting character in an ensemble cast, but finally she gets the opportunity to lead a film. Thanks to her deadpan, monotone delivery, her cynical demeanour thrives for a character trying to come to terms with her spinster lifestyle. This is particularly fulfilling in the speed dating montages and her views of marriage as a contract more than a fairytale.

The other half of the film’s magical trope-breaking formula is the choice of location: Nova Scotia. Typically fairytale style romantic comedies see women going through a journey of self-discovery in large urban centres or beautiful idyllic towns, but the filmmakers choice of the slightly mundane and uneventful Canadian East Coast proves to add to the overall atmosphere of the narrative. It is through these two aspects that the film manages to stay afloat because beyond that there are some pitfalls when one scratches a little deeper than the surface.

For starters, Spinster tries extremely hard to tackle the idea of romance as fantasy and yet even the idea of a spinster lifestyle is romanticized here. Between her very supportive family and friends, her father wanting to help her business, her career goals, the dog. Everything just seems to fall into place a little too nicely for a film that tries to keep things authentic. This is also seen through the lack of actual work that Gaby does in her life as she seems more focused on finding love than catering the weddings she so desperately wants. Perhaps the filmmakers decided to omit these aspects of her life, but to keep her business afloat she must spend the majority of her time working and yet it doesn’t seem that way at all.

Meanwhile, the lack of that element may also be part of the reason that the film seemingly drags and walks in place for most of its already short running time. Even with a running time of 87 minutes, the film feels long because it lacks any sort of conflict, comic, organic or otherwise. It causes the scenes to feel dull, the overall narrative to be tedious and the climax to be unsatisfying. With no building tension or conflict, even the most genuine story falls flat.

Unfortunately, Spinster ends up being as uneventful as Gaby’s love life. If only it did a bit more to push the boundaries of its unconventional take on a beloved genre.

still courtesy of Vertical Entertainment

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Dylan Phillips