When Daniel Arnold and Matthew Kowalchuk set out to write their feature film debut, they looked to the theatre world for creative inspiration. 
It was a natural mining ground for the pair, who’d been pounding the boards (and writing and directing plays) in Edmonton and Vancouver before this pivotal moment in their artistic lives.
They zeroed in on Lawrence & Holloman, a two-hander by renowned Canadian playwright Morris Panych about a suicidal pessimist and the eternal optimist he sets out to destroy (sort of like The Odd Couple, but in an alternate universe where Felix sets out to dismantle Oscar quirk by quirk until they’re both nearly dead).
Their expectations were as low as their budget (really, really low). They’d write the screenplay together. Kowalchuk would direct, and Arnold would co-star. They’d film with their friends on weekends and spend next to no money and all.
But like its titular characters, Lawrence & Holloman was destined for more. With funding support from a wealth of sources (including the venerable Telefilm), and award-winning film and television actor Ben Cotton (Arctic Air; The Killing; Once Upon a Time in Wonderland) turning in a stupendous performance as the optimistic Lawrence, the locally shot Lawrence & Holloman has journeyed much further than its rookie creators ever imagined.
Since premiering at the 2013 Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF), the film has won 11 awards at 11 film festivals across Canada and the United States, and recently nabbed the Leo Award for Best Casting.
It enjoyed a market screening at Cannes and screened to three sold-out audiences at the Shanghai International Film Festival, where Kowalchuk and producer Paul Armstrong found themselves mobbed by autograph seekers.
“I guess the Chinese really like their comedies dark,” laughs Arnold in a Skype call from Australia, where Lawrence & Holloman is an official selection at the Revelation Perth International Film Festival.
This week, Lawrence & Holloman comes full-circle when it kicks off theatrical runs at two Vancouver theatres.
Arnold co-stars as Holloman, who, as the film opens, is one gun-click away from ending his life. A chance encounter connects him with Lawrence, a suit salesman who seems to have a horseshoe up his ass.
At first, Holloman wants to learn from the exuberant Lawrence, but soon - well, let’s just say laughter ensues, limbs might or might not be lost, and life lessons are imparted.
It’s obvious that the film began in theatre, given the effervescent dialogue and the focus on two characters (although Arnold and Kowalchuk created a second layer of supporting characters, including a jilted fiancé and a lesbian lingerie saleswoman after whom Holloman pines); but the cinematic medium allowed the filmmakers to push the characters to the max.
“Movies show, not tell, so what we tried to do was show a lot of the journey between the two guys, and Lawrence’s downfall, while keeping as much of the witty banter between the characters as possible,” says Arnold.
Off screen, Arnold is more of a Lawrence than a Holloman. “Because I’m an actor and a writer and a producer, I feel like I have to be an optimist, otherwise this movie would not have been made,” says Arnold.
Weeks spent inhabiting the dreary character spilled over into Arnold’s real life. “By the end of shooting, I was a prick. I was depressed. I always had slumped shoulders. I always had a frown,” he says. “It took me about a week to shrug out of it.”
His co-writer is similarly more Lawrence than Holloman. “There’s something inherent in the story that is close to me,” says Kowalchuk, who won the award for Best Emerging Director at VIFF.
“You are what you perceive, and what you see in the world is what you become, and I’ve learned that I like telling that story,” he adds.
Lawrence & Holloman opens at the Vancity Theatre on July 18 and the Rio Theatre on July 24. Details at LawrenceAndHolloman.com.
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