Niagara Motel

43 votes and 3 Reviews | Write a Review

1h 30m | Drama

In a down-scale motel in the tourist Mecca of Niagara Falls, a group of turbulent individuals are all, for various reasons, at crisis points in their lives. One of them is Loretta Bourgogne, the young, sexy and pregnant waitress at the Motel restaurant. She has her hands full with the many men who all want something from her.

There's Dave, the underachieving stapler salesman who is dating Loretta to impress his boss. There's Michael, the small-time hustler who wants to exploit Loretta's 'special quality' in the world of adult porn videos. And there's Gilles, the father of Loretta's unborn baby, who wants her back home in Quebec. She also has to deal with her ex's parents, who demand she return home. Staying in one of the rooms is Denise, a recovering drug addict, and her husband R.J., an ex-con who found religion in prison. The couple is desperately trying to regain custody of their baby from social services.

In another room are Henry and Lily, a middle-class couple whose marriage is rapidly failing. Henry, a former corporate manager, is out of a job and is looking for one in Niagara Falls. Lily is sourly unhappy because she's used to so much more -- and now they're on the verge of bankruptcy. Knowing that some money has to come from somewhere, Lily makes friends with Sandy, a prostitute who works out of the Motel. Lily figures that if Sandy can make so much money, why can't she?

Phillie Phillips, the Motel's woeful, drunken manager and room cleaner, lurches drunkenly in and out of the lives of the three sets of characters, all the while moving toward his own epiphany, a fall over Niagara Falls. The owners of the Motel and restaurant are Boris and his daughter Sophie, immigrants from the former Yugoslavia. Boris, a loudmouth yeller, and kind-hearted Sophie, constantly reproach and meddle in the lives of their customers.