By Joanne Sargent
Contributor
They weren’t even that well matched and she never really liked him that much in the first place, but it still hurt when he abruptly broke up with her on her birthday. So began Gaby’s last year in her 30s, in Spinster, a thoughtful Canadian film shot in Halifax, that celebrates single life.
Chelsea Peretti stars as Gaby, a 39-year-old woman whose inability to find a suitable mate has turned her sour on most aspects of her life. Following the birthday break-up, she makes a few disastrous stabs at revitalizing her love life as she grapples with her conflicting impulses to couple up or stay single. Maybe having a partner is not all it’s cracked up to be.
It’s not easy to be single at her age when almost every social activity is couple-oriented and her relationship status comes up constantly. But Gaby’s singlehood allows her to re-connect with the people around her and build stronger bonds instead of chasing romance for the sake of it. She dedicates the last year of her 30s to working on herself, chasing long-deferred professional dreams and finding unexpected companionship along the way, with her neighbour Callie, an older single woman with no regrets about her choices, her shy 10-year-old niece in whom she inspires new assertiveness, and a rescue collie.
In the end, Gaby’s life is full and she feels valued with or without a partner. Spinster makes the case that women should be able to create a life that fits their dreams rather than society’s. The movie is humorous, warm and natural — we feel like we’re watching real people be real.
Spinster shows at 5pm on Saturday January 27 at the Classic Theatre.
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