"DARKEST MIRIAM" CAPSULE REVIEW

By Nadia Dalimonte

Britt Lower in Darkest Miriam (2025)

​This year’s Canadian Film Fest (CFF) kicked off with Naomi Jaye’s eccentric sophomore directorial feature, Darkest Miriam. The film stars Britt Lower (known for her role as Helly R. in Severance) as Miriam Gordon, a Toronto librarian who lives a relatively strange and quiet life. Haunted by the death of her father, Miriam navigates enigmatic waves of grief while dealing with the everyday oddities of library patrons. No matter how many incident reports she files away, the patrons (Fainting Man and Unusually Pale Female Patron, to name a few) persist. So too does Miriam’s mysterious interior world, as it flows eloquently into frame, whether through Lower’s majestic performance or Jaye’s poetic use of imagery. Executive produced by Charlie Kaufman and based on Martha Baillie’s 2009 novel The Incident Report, Darkest Miriam plays in a darkly humorous and deeply fragmented wheelhouse. While the film often gets lost in Miriam’s trailing memories, and feels much longer than its runtime, there’s an enticing quality to the puzzling narrative and wry tone. Featuring an incredibly understated performance by Lower, who wisely lets the viewer put pieces of her character together, the film is full of little discoveries that speak volumes.
 
Darkest Miriam will be available digitally on April 15.
 
Canadian Film Festival (CFF) runs from March 24-29, 2025 at Cineplex’s Scotiabank Theatre in Toronto.