After eight years without a date, golf course owner Kevin (Cam Cronin) just wants to meet the right woman. He drops “subtle” hints, like leaving neatly wrapped luxury watches on their desks after knowing them only briefly, but that just seems to scare them away. Because he's already been divorced once, Kevin's overly concerned mother (Gabrielle Rose) is worried that her chances of being a grandmother may be dwindling. Then along comes Hayaam, (Laara Sadiq). Beautiful, funny and smart, she seems perfect. But Kevin must overcome his other major problem: a certain over-eagerness in the bedroom. His hypersensitive appendage has led to loneliness and broken relationships before, and after only one incident with Hayaam he's almost ready to forfeit. Refusing to give up, Hayaam is willing to help work through his problem, no matter how many practice sessions may be required. Now if only they could solve the issue of his mother.
A dynamic cast brings writer and director Bruce Sweeney's characters to full realization. Cronin gives a pained and comic performance worthy of Woody Allen, and Sadiq provides the perfect level of sultry angst as Hayaam. Rose delivers her usual zeal to the role of the overbearing mother, bringing both humour and sadness to her blustery character.
Funny and sexy, Excited finds Sweeney returning to similar terrain covered in his excellent debut feature Live Bait, in which he also used sex and its dysfunctions to explore the nature of social and familial relationships. Sweeney inverts the romantic comedy, making a movie that is more about what keeps people apart than what brings them together. Each relationship comes with heavy baggage, from Kevin and Hayaam's separate yet shared anxieties about aging alone, to Kevin's brother Randy's affair and recovery from addiction. A film about expectations, be they personal, social or sexual, Excited bears Sweeney's trademark wit, with knowing and honest insight into human behaviour.
Jesse Wente
Bruce Sweeney was born in Sarnia, Ontario. He received a B.A. in visual art and communication from Simon Fraser University and an M.F.A. in film from the University of British Columbia. He studied directing under Mike Leigh at a master class in 1991, and won the best Canadian feature award at the Festival in 1995 for his first film,
Live Bait. His subsequent feature films include
Dirty (98),
Last Wedding, which was the Festival's Opening Night Gala in 2001,
American Venus (07) and
Excited (09).