THE STEPS
An uptight New Yorker and his party girl sister visit a lake house to meet their dad’s new cocktail-wife waitress and her rough-around-the-edges kids. When the parents announce they’re adopting a new step child to bring the family together, it has the opposite effect.
Jeff Stabler, a former financial planner from New York, has lost everything: his apartment, his job, and his fiancée. When he learns that his wealthy dad, Ed, has eloped with a fifty-year-old cocktail waitress from Timmins, Ontario, he is not impressed. Still, he agrees to accompany his party-girl sister, Marla, to an opulent lake house in Northern Ontario to meet their new step family and hear their dad’s big announcement. Given the changing family dynamics, Jeff’s sure the announcement has to do with Ed’s finances.
Jeff and Marla arrive at the lake house to find their conservative dad in the midst of an oily, tantric massage session with his bride, Sherry. And it’s all downhill from there. Sherry’s kids arrive: David (an energy drink-guzzling paintball salesman); his sweet but simple wife, Tammy; brother, Keith (a depressed musician wearing a SCRAM bracelet); and Sherry’s youngest, Sam (a genius of Indian descent).
Ed and Sherry announce their plans to adopt Mingmei, a young orphaned girl from China. On Monday, a social worker will arrive to interview them all. Sherry’s planned a weekend of bonding activities designed to turn them into a happy, loving family. But that’s easier said than done. And when Jeff discovers that his stepmom has been keeping a scandalous secret, the family could be destroyed forever. Of course, Jeff has been keeping a few secrets of his own…
The Steps is the story of two disparate families, with all their issues and baggage, learning to come together over the course of a weekend.
Director: Andrew Currie
Screenplay: Robyn Harding
Producers: Mary Anne Waterhouse, Daniel Iron, Andrew Currie, Jason James
Principal Cast: Jason Ritter, Emmanuelle Chriqui, James Brolin, Christine Lahti, Vinay Virmani, Benjamin Arthur, Kate Corbett, and Steven McCarthy
Development financing: Telefilm Canada, Harold Greenberg Fund, Superchannel
Canadian Distributor: Entertainment One
International Sales Agent: Seville International
Runtime: 98 mins