A Canadian black-comedy family movie. Who knew?
So there's Mom and Dad completely self absorbed bastards, terrrible parents full of abuse and neglect in equal measure. There's the dutiful Older Brother, the troubled Older Sister, and the Little Ones (stand-out performance from Samantha Weinstein as the younger sister). Due to a complex series of divorces and remarriges, Older Brother and Older Sister aren't actually blood relations to each other or The Little Ones. And then there's Grandpa, holding the family together and keeping Mom and Dad at bay.
Naturally, in the first scene, Grandpa dies, then Older Brother sort-of accidentally kills Mom and Dad, then things start to get dark. Nosey Sexified Neighbour (Sarah Polley) gets involved, and now there's explanations to be made, Christmas pagents to be attended and bodies to be disposed of, basically the universal problems all families face. There were some odd soundtrack choices (for my tastes), thumping techno when the mood was brooding, for example.