Bruce McKay

A quietly meditative drama as hermetic and allusive as a minimalist short story. Spiritual discontent of three leads is compellingly rendered, but characters are too opaque for pic to strike dramatic sparks.

Dalton Leash has been forced to leave his home and the people he loves. A victim of family disgrace and shame, he wanders aimlessly, though a chance for redemption comes his way when his half-brother from Australia offers him a job looking after an upscale girls' riding academy.

Following the adventures of a bunch of nobodies who get up to a whole lot of nothing in the fictional prairie town of Dog River, Saskatchewan, Corner Gas focuses on the life (or lack thereof) of Brent LeRoy, proprietor of a gas station that is the only stop for miles around and a hub of action on the Prairies.