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The two title characters of Kazik Radwanski’s film are not actually a couple. This does not matter, but it’s something that stays on our mind through how we watch the way these two people interact with one another. Matt and Mara almost feel like the perfect couple for one another, but Radwanski’s greater interests lie in exploring how such a dynamic is formed between two people who are so close to one another and then can inform their own worldview. And while the scale of Matt and Mara seems small, it feels as if there’s also something much bigger happening all around the two of them.

Mara Walsh (Deragh Campbell) is a creative writing professor married to Samir (Mounir Al Shami), with whom she has a toddler. In her university years, she was friends with Matt (Matt Johnson), an author who has since moved to New York City in order to find success. The two of them eventually reunite after Matt shows up in one of Mara’s classes, and this later results in both of them carrying on with their lives like they were still together in university. It’s easy enough to present a story like this in the same manner that any other dramedy pertaining to a long-awaited reunion between two friends, but Kazik Radwanski also digs deeper into exploring their worlds and many lost possibilities along the way.

Shot in Toronto, Matt and Mara never feels so flashy, but even with all those landmarks visible that would be familiar to viewers from the city, our focus always remains on how the two of them see the world in each other’s company. Kazik Radwanski utilizes Toronto’s cityscape in order to paint a portrait of artists with very similar passions struggling to make it out of a place that seems too familiar to the two of them all around. The two of them always talk about how important it is to stay connected with each other through the art that they create, but Toronto is not so accommodating for their own desires – which only pushes such people apart.

In how these two differing philosophies about their own home city can relate to one another, what’s also felt in how Kazik Radwanski brings forth such a friendship always feels real. It’s always so deeply grounded in the fact that both its title protagonists are characters who have their own dependencies on one another, but the thought that they actually have more in common with each other leaves one to contemplate the many lost opportunities are felt within a city that doesn’t advocate what fuels them most in life. It also results in two very wonderful performances out of both Matt Johnson and Deragh Campbell, who have astonishing chemistry together with one another but play off each other in the best ways possible – Matt being more aloof, Mara being more reserved, only making the two of them perfect for each other’s company.

These observations felt within a city that can’t always accommodate the artistic ambitions of its own people add a sense of melancholy to Matt and Mara. Much of this stems from how the two of them have chosen to take their own lives in vastly different directions in order to find something that they believe will be fulfilling to them. It also helps form two wholly relatable characters which is especially important towards the greater commentary about creating art within a space that we’ve become so used to living within for so long. For many Toronto-based artists, capitalism has only gotten in the way and prevented them from achieving what they sought for most – making it much harder for them to survive within a city that they love dearly.

And yet, it’s never kept these two people apart from one another in spite of everything working against them. But the appeal to Matt and Mara comes from realizing all those lost opportunities that have escaped you, especially when you see someone you know achieving that success. It adds to the universality of a story like Matt and Mara, because Mara’s own lack of fulfillment from her life being so stagnant can only be bottled up for so long. And while Matt’s goofy personality might be the perfect counterpart for such, it’s all about realizing that you can’t let everything limit you in some form, as much as your circumstances put you in that position. Frankly, all those moments that are funny or sad only leave you thinking back to those opportunities you missed, or could hop onto.

Watch the trailer right here.

All images via Cinema Guild.

Directed by Kazik Radwanski
Screenplay by Kazik Radwanski
Produced by Daniel Montgomery, Candice Napoleone
Starring Deragh Campbell, Matt Johnson, Mounir Al Shami
Premiere Date: February 20, 2024 (Berlin)
Running Time: 80 minutes