Blood Lines: A Well-Intentioned Melodramatic Letdown

From the start, the mission of Blood Lines is to honor, respect, and fully display Metis culture. Every inch of this film is seeping with rich Metis culture, from the clearly close knit community, to the beautiful language, to their celebrations. It is a beautiful display of their culture, especially for those unfamiliar with these communities. However, the rest of the film is not nearly as great, featuring mediocre writing akin to that of a Hallmark film, awkward acting, and a late plot twist that transforms it into a melodramatic sequence of events. Dana Soloman plays Beatrice, a girl living in a rural Canadian town with a close knit Metis community. Following the return of her estranged mom, who wants to be part of her life again, Beatrice strikes a budding romance with Chani (Derica Lyn Lafrance), a new girl in town attempting to find her birth mother. Led by an underdeveloped romance and underdeveloped plot points, it’s a shame that a film surrounded by such a beautiful culture and community is let down by poor writing. 

In spite of its flaws, the film does have some highlights, though they are few and far between. Firstly, the rich Metis culture embedded throughout the film is evident. Writer-director-star Gail Maurice is Metis, and her film is partly in Michif, a language with around 1300 speakers (and less than 1000 fluent speakers). While a truly admirable and beautiful feat, for many audiences, this could likely be their first time experiencing the Metis community. Additionally, the film’s themes and ideas attempt to explore are certainly important ones, ones that the Metis face almost every day. Even if it may not be as successful at exploring any of these plots, bringing both attention and representation to this community through these stories is so important in educating audiences on these issues.

Unfortunately, Blood Lines tries to explore so many themes and stories, that it feels overstuffed plot wise. It seems the film wants to bring so much to the table, as it relates to the Metis community, that it struggles to balance all of its plot points. The cancer plot, tied with the parental conflict plot, tied with the budding romance, tied with the eventual plot twist, never completely come together as neatly as they could have. The romance subplot, though nice, was underdeveloped and rushed. The chemistry of Solomon and Lafrance is fine, but they’re much to do with their characters outside of surface level material, so as cute as their relationship is, it never feels natural. Even outside of the plot twist, more time should have been dedicated to their relationship for it to work in the context of the story, but that also would have meant sacrificing one of the film’s many other plotlines. 

Having subplots that don’t quite mesh together is certainly a missed opportunity, as the film does explore timely and important issues affecting Metis communities. However, by the end, the last twenty minutes drive it into overly melodramatic territory. And that isn’t to say that what happens here has never or could never happen, rather, its execution, tied with the other plotlines, felt overly dramatic to the detriment of the film. Had it not been for some trimming, focusing on just Beatrice’s relationship with her mother, with a side of romance, the film would have felt less stuffed, allowing for further exploration of her relationship with her mother as to make the final result feel more earned. 

Blood Lines could have been so much stronger as a whole, had the writing simply been stronger. Rather than the clunky lines of dialogue that the actors were given, properly exploring the relationship between Beatrice and her mother whilst navigating the generational trauma that is deeply embedded within Metis (and Indigenous) communities would have been the better path. It is clear the film has good intentions, but on top of weak writing, questionable acting makes the film rough to get through. With this film, Maurice wants to show the struggles that Metis people have and continue to go through. While it is beautiful to see a culture so underrepresented be seen on film, it’s unfortunate that their story is portrayed in such a melodramatic fashion.

still courtesy of Elevation Pictures

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Jasmine Graham