The new Trailer Park Boys movie marks the end of one of the greatest romances ever known in the annals of Canadian pop culture history. The film begins on a beach in the Caribbean, as the lobster-tanned Mr. Lahey (John Dunsworth) marches drunkenly throughout the resort in a red speedo and with liquor in hand. He’s nursing a broken heart, Mr. Lahey. Whatever happened at the Sunnyvale Trailer Park uncoupled the curmudgeonly supervisor from his shirtless love, but what could it be? This bizarre little teaser is the first sign that Mike Clattenburg’s venerable East Coast docu-comedy franchise was going in bold, new and more ambitious directions. But really it’s the same old drunken antics as ever, no fear Trailer Park fans.
It was concerning for a minute as the movie got off to a rocky start, comedicly speaking. The Trailer Park Boys series has been over for a couple of years now, so some kind of rustiness is to be expected, but the important part is that they find it again, and they did. Once the boys settle into the plot they find those characters again and make them sing as the story takes them in strange new directions. For the fans, you’ll get a prominent subplot for everybody’s favourite suburban white boy rapper J-Roc (Jonathan Torrens), a possible girlfriend for Bubbles (Mike Smith) and a life-altering decision for Randy (Pat Roach) as he chooses to side with the lesser of two evils. Even the guys making this “documentary” paradoxically get more screen time.
Ambition is key to the plot of Countdown to Liquor Day. Julian (Robb Wells), Ricky (John Paul Tremblay) and Bubbles are released from prison after two years and return to Sunnyvale to find that Lahey has turned it into a more high end trailer park. It’s the trailer park equivalent of a modern subdivision and Lahey is proud of his kingdom, so much so that he’s been dry for the last two years. The boys themselves have a plan, Julian wants to open an auto body shop, Julian’s going for his Grade 12, and Bubbles just wants to raise enough capital to get his kitties back from the SPCA. For once the guys are proactively trying to stay out of prison and avoid illegal activities, but then there’s that old saying about olds dogs.
The idea of Ricky, Bubbles and Julian trying to go straight may be jarring to some fans, but Clattenberg uses the idea only as elaborate set-up to get to some of the most outrageous, over-the-top antics the Boys have ever gotten up to. What’s also jarring is that the once borderline ambiguous Lahey/Randy relationship is brought into the open more than it’s ever been before, and what’s more is that there’s a kind of love triangle between them and Ricky. This leads to some more uncomfortably awkward humour used more popularly on The Office as opposed to The Trailer Park Boys, but it does make for some wickedly funny scenes. Playing further with the form, Randy becomes the ubiquitous fourth Trailer Park Boy, and even gets involved in their less than reputable activities.
I’m not sure how hardcore fans will react to some of these monumental changes in what was already comedic perfection in form and substance. I was never a huge fan, though I did tune into the show on rare occasion, and for me Liquor Day delivered handily. Clattenberg and his actors aren’t reinventing the wheel, but they did tweak it a little in order to deliver something both familiar and fresh. Liquor Day is comfort food with a new spice added, it’s the same meal, but there’s now an unfamiliar flavour in the mix that maybe strange at first, but ultimately as pleasing as the original recipe. Ambition doesn’t always lead one awry, unless your name is Ricky, Julian or Bubbles of course.
