''The Events Leading Up to My Death'' is a Canadian comedy film, released in 1991.

Gerald Pratley Gerald Arthur Pratley (September 3, 1923 – March 14, 2011) was a Canadian film critic and historian. Piers Handling"Gerald Arthur Pratley" ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'', September 18, 2011. A longtime film critic for the Canadian Broadcasting Cor ...

, ''A Century of Canadian Cinema''. Lynx Images, 2003. . p. 71. Written and directed by Bill Robertson, the film revolves around the dysfunctional Snack family around the time of the death of Busty, the family's pet

dog The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it is derived from the extinct Pleistocene wolf, and the modern wolf is the dog's nearest living relative. Do ...

."Suburban wackos more dead than deadpan". ''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...

'', June 5, 1992.

Plot

The film stars John Allore as Angus, who is visiting for his 21st birthday after escaping the stifling family home in

Don Mills Don Mills is a mixed-use neighbourhood in the North York district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was developed to be a self-supporting " new town" and was at the time located outside Toronto proper. In 1998, North York, including the Don Mills c ...

to get his own apartment in downtown

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

with his girlfriend Julia ( Maria Del Mar). His parents (

Peter MacNeill Peter MacNeill is a Canadian film and television actor and voice-over artist who has starred in numerous television series and films. His film credits have included '' The Hanging Garden'' (for which MacNeill won a Genie Award for Best Support ...

and

Rosemary Radcliffe Rosemary Radcliffe (born 1949) is a Canadian comic actress, writer, composer and painter. She graduated from Ryerson Polytechnical Institute in Toronto, then began her television career on ''Sunday Morning'' at CBLT Toronto. Career She perfo ...

) barely communicate, with his dad spending most of his time

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

ing and his mom spending all her time in the kitchen baking and cooking too much food and having an affair with the milkman (Frank McAnulty). Meanwhile his sister Lindsay (

Linda Kash Linda Kash (born 17 January 1961) is a Canadian actress. Career An alumna of Second City, she played Trudy Weissman in the 1998 Jean Smart sitcom ''Style & Substance''. She has also played various roles in popular television series, such as '' ...

) spends all her time making strange

dough Dough is a thick, malleable, sometimes elastic paste made from grains or from leguminous or chestnut crops. Dough is typically made by mixing flour with a small amount of water or other liquid and sometimes includes yeast or other leavening ag ...

art in the hopes of setting off a house fire so that she can be rescued by and fall in love with a hot fireman (

Jeremy Ratchford Jeremy Ratchford (born August 6, 1965) is a Canadian actor. He starred as Nick Vera on the TV series ''Cold Case''. Career While in Canada, Ratchford played Marvel Comic book character Banshee in the live action TV super hero film ''Generation ...

), while his other sister Katy (

Karen Hines Karen Hines is a Canadian actor, writer and director. She is the artistic director and producer of "Keep Frozen: Pochsy Productions." Born in Chicago, raised in Toronto, she now lives in Calgary where she was playwright in Residence at Alberta Th ...

) is constantly having casual sex with every man she meets. When dad reveals that he has been taking secret dance lessons from Rita (

Mary Margaret O'Hara Mary Margaret O'Hara is a Canadian singer-songwriter, actress and composer. She is best known for the album ''Miss America'', released in 1988. She released two albums and an EP under her own name, and remains active as a live performer, as a con ...

), the family end up signing up for group dance classes in the hopes that the shared experience can heal their relationship. O'Hara also composed much of the film's score.

Distribution

The film premiered in September 1991 at the

1991 Toronto International Film Festival The 16th Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) took place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada between September 5 and September 14, 1991. Jodie Foster's directorial debut film Little Man Tate, premiered in the ''Gala Presentation'' at the festival. A ...

Critical response

In his 2003 book ''A Century of Canadian Cinema'',

wrote that the film was "a worthy attempt at satirizing an affluent suburban family", but concluded that "they are a tiresome and uninteresting lot, the writing fails to sustain the premise, and the cast are not up to it."

Awards

Robertson won the Acura Award for Best Canadian Screenplay at the

Vancouver International Film Festival The Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) is an annual film festival held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, for two weeks in late September and early October. The festival is operated by the Greater Vancouver International Film Fest ...

."Robertson wins screenwriting award". ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

'', October 16, 1991.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Events Leading Up to My Death, The 1991 films Canadian comedy films 1991 directorial debut films 1991 comedy films English-language Canadian films 1990s English-language films 1990s Canadian films Films shot in Toronto Films set in Toronto