[dog barking in distance]
Adult mark: Our family didn't like to talk about the past.
Pop?
Uh, when did your father die?
Uh, 1896.
He drowned when I was two.
He was a whaler.
The whale won.
Adult mark: Mostly because there wasn't much
Good to talk about.
And his father?
Drowned.
And his?
Lost at sea.
Why?
It's homework. We have to do a family tree.
Good god, what would you want to do a family tree for?
You spend all that time and money trying to find out
Where you came from, and then you spend twice as much
Trying to cover it all back up again!
Adult mark: The only time my parents looked back
Was to toss some salt over their shoulder.
Oh, mom?
When did your mother die?
It's not nice to talk about the dead.
I'm going to bed.
What?
Pop: Sorry, son.
Our family tree is more like a shrub.
An over-watered one at that. [phone rings]
Mike sr: Good god, who's calling the house at this hour?
Pop: See, the critches were fishermen from liverpool.
Now, my brother moses, he didn't drown!
He died of tb.
Pop: Put that in there. Mark: Yeah.
Pop: That's important.
What's that again?
Brendan...?
Oh?
Adult mark: Uncle brendan was a travelling salesman.
He was always in trouble.
What's he done now?
It's not the police, is it?
Oh, it's probably somebody looking for money.
Adult mark: But he was still pop's favourite.
Just say he isn't here.
He isn't here!
Ah, look, I haven't seen brendan in...
Let me have that again?
[indecipherable voice on phone]
Oh, uh...
Okay, well, thanks for letting us know.
Goodbye.
Well, what is it?
What's the trouble the boy's got into now?
He's dead.
♪
Wha...?
♪
Adult mark: My family tree was losing leaves
Like it was the windiest day in autumn.
♪
Adult mark: The critch family plot was close to bursting,
But there was just enough room for uncle brendan
To slip in like the missing piece of a puzzle.
Mary: Mike... Shouldn't somebody say something?
Uncle brendan...
Uncle brendan was, um...
He was...
♪
Adult mark: Try as I might,
I just couldn't make the tears come.
And try as he might, my brother just couldn't stop them.
♪
Come on.
I just spoke to bucky.
He tells me that the grave is packed tight.
The only way we're gonna get poor brendan in there
Is if we stick him in sideways.
Good god!
Shh, keep it down!
Geez.
I always thought that I'd be in there alongside your mother.
What about me?
This is not about you.
This is about me!
[crying in background]
You go ahead, dad. I'll make sure it's done.
You sure?
Yeah.
Alright, everyone. Nothing to see here.
Got some tiny sandwiches up at the house.
Alice: Come on, girl.
We checks in on our crowd before we goes.
♪
Bucky: Well, mike, b'y.
Hard losing a brother, eh?
You must be torn apart.
Hm.
♪
Adult mark: A cemetery trip was a family archivist's dream.
I couldn't see the forest for the family trees.
Mark: Uh, mom?
Mary: Yes, my love?
Where's my grandmother? Her name's not on here.
Why would her name be there? She's not--
Say a prayer, alice. You'll be in there soon enough.
[sobbing]
They just never added her name is all.
She was a very...
Private person.
Now, give it up being morbid. You're on me last nerve.
Alice, we're gone.
Fine, stay and water the flowers.
Adult mark: Like bucky the gravedigger,
The more I dug, the more I uncovered.
Oh, now, look who's decided to show up.
Fashionably late!
I was burying my brother!
Sideways!
Next to my mother, whose coffin has held up pretty well,
By the way!
Boo-hoo-hoo, ya big poodle.
You couldn't even let your brother have his special day!
Do you know what it was like for me to have to see all that?
No, because I was here entertaining our company!
I don't mean to interrupt, but, uh, mr. Critch...
Mike is the only son you have left.
It's too late to change the past,
But it isn't too late to adjust the future.
Ooh, jam-jams!
Don't mind if I do!
Yummy, yummy.
Okay.
Was I really a bad father?
Oh, no, dad. Brendan loved you.
No, I don't mean to him.
I mean to you.
Oh. Well, uh...
You did your best, dad.
No, no.
No, I didn't.
It's too late for me and brendan and me now, but...
It's not too late for you and I.
Come on.
Mark: Mom? Mary: What, honey?
What did my grandmother die from?
Jesus murphy!
Have we not had enough death for one day?
Go make yourself useful!
Pass out those wieners!
Adult mark: It was unlike my mother not to gossip
About someone.
Something was up.
Mark: Vienna sausage?
Ooh, viennese!
We don't get these in the rectory.
Mark: Father, I'm researching my family tree
And I'm missing some leaves.
Does the church have births, deaths?
That kind of thing?
Well, all that information is kind of private.
It's not really for kids.
Well, I...
I guess I could supervise?
Yeah.
There's plenty more where that came from.
[thud]
Pop: Use the bloody mitt!
Adult mark: Pop was determined to make up for lost time,
And with dad,
That meant starting over at the beginning.
Pop: You sure you don't want to take your jacket off?
Nice and easy!
Oh!
Pop: Augh. Jesus.
Come on, this is wasted time!
Adult mark: Dislike father, dislike son.
[school bell rings]
♪
Adult mark: Even jesus had a more detailed family tree
Than I did!
♪
Whoa! Nice tree.
Very full.
Photo albums, arrest records.
It was easy.
How's yours?
I'm just having a little trouble
Finding out where my grandmother is.
I don't really know my nan either.
Yeah, dad cashed her pension cheques
So she's super pissed.
Shut up, nimrod!
Maybe we could help.
That'd be great!
I have a lead.
We will leave no tombstone unturned.
♪
Radio: At coles funeral home, we want to help you to...
Who should we leave the oven to?
What?
The oven. Who should get it?
Why are you writing a will?
The only one that gets any of our stuff when we dies
Is the bank.
Why don't you just tell the boy where his grandmother is?
No need to go stirring all that up.
Let dead dogs lie.
[front door opens]
You can't change the past.
[front door closes]
We are gonna do something we should have done years ago.
I'm gonna teach you how to fish.
[sighs] pop: Come on.
You'll love it.
Mary: Sorry.
[dog barking and bird calling in distance]
[music playing on radio]
♪ in every life we have some trouble. ♪
♪ but if you worry you makes it double. ♪
♪ don't worry!
♪ be happy!
Jesus, mike.
Don't worry!
Be happy!
♪ don't worry...
♪ be happy...
♪ don't worry, be happy.
♪ woo...
[door opens]
Frig, mike. What's wrong?
I miss uncle brendan.
You know, he just got me, and now he's just gone,
And it's not fair.
It never is.
Brendan was good for a laugh.
He wouldn't want to see you like this.
Oh...
Geez, yeah, he'd be pretty embarrassed, huh?
No, b'y.
I never seen anyone take to this place as quick as you.
Brendan would be proud to be your uncle.
I know I would be.
Look, I got ya something I been meaning to give ya.
Oh, yeah? What is it?
Dick: Not much time left in this song.
Hang on.
Mike jr: No way!
You earned it.
Well, come on! Try it on!
♪ don't worry...
Oh!
Thanks... Uncle dick.
Oh...
Jesus.
[both sobbing]
[church bell tolls]
♪
Adult mark: Even priests can be tempted.
Hey, you kids gotta hurry up.
If brother angel comes back, he'll crucify me.
I can't find her anywhere!
She's a ghost.
Ritche: That's the point.
She's dead.
Do you mind? She's still my grandmother.
She has to be in here somewhere. We found her birth certificate.
What's this all about, anyway?
My mom says her mom's buried in our plot,
But I can't find her...
There or anywhere.
Well, there's an explanation for everything.
Like turning water into wine?
Well, there might be more info in the parish sectretum,
But that's off-limits.
Please, father? Just this once?
I'm sorry, buddy.
I wish I could help, but even I don't know what's in there.
Found it!
Holy crap!
Oh, no.
Uh...
Okay, give that to me.
Fox: No. Father garcia: I... Give it.
Fox: Why would I-- father garcia: Give it to me.
What's it say?
Nothing, it's stupid.
Your nan was divorced!
Adult mark: Divorce!
The only catholic "d" word worse than death!
And she re-married!
But catholics can't remarry.
She changed religions?
So we just have to check the protestant cemetery now, right?
No.
She won't be there.
Why not?
Because she's not dead!
[coughs] jesus christ!
...Be with you.
♪
Pop: I should have taught you how to fish years ago!
Mike sr: What?
I can't hear anything over that bloody engine.
Make and break!
Old and reliable, just like me.
♪
Fisherman: Waddaya at?
Asshole.
I wish we were on that one!
What?
Forget it, ya deaf old coot!
[laughs] exactly!
Alright, sit down, lad.
Pop: Okay, here we go.
♪
Mark: Mom?
Christ on a cracker!
You scared the bejesus out of me!
I have a question.
I don't want to hear it.
You come from a long line of dead people.
That's all you need to know.
I promise I won't ask where my grandmother is buried again.
[exhales] thank god for that.
So, where does she live?
Enough!
I got that much to do today, I--
Stop lying!
She isn't dead! She isn't even catholic!
What kind of mother lies about a kid's grandmother being dead?
Well, she's dead to me.
"what kind of mother?" wow!
The kind of mother who didn't have one, I guess.
Mom, please. Please...
Mary: Oh...
The only thing I ever wanted to keep from you was pain.
My parents got divorced when I was seven years old.
The nuns looked at me like I was the devil's own, which...
I s'pose I was.
Mom, I'm sorry, I won't...
Oh, duckie, I don't want to be the kind of mother who lies.
I had enough of that myself.
♪
Mary: So...
One day my mother just packed a bag and left,
Like she was going to the store.
I begged her to take me with her,
But she just pushed me down
And told me to stay where I was.
And being a good girl, I listened to her.
I never saw hide nor hair of my mother again.
Adult mark: Looking at the hurt in my mother's eyes,
I realized that some things stay buried for a reason.
You want to know where she is?
She married a clark and she lives on forest road.
But... You said never to go there.
"nothing but skeets and hussies."
I didn't lie to you about that.
♪
You knew where she was all this time
And you never even called her?
She's your mother!
I know when I'm not wanted.
Adult mark: If there was one thing I was good at,
It was making things worse.
Pop: Alright, let it hit the bottom,
Bring it up a couple of feet, and then start jigging.
That's what I'm doing!
Jerk it!
Ya jerk, don't you know anything?
I s'pose if brendan was here now he'd just walk out on the water
And the fish would just start jumpin' in the boat?
Pop: Alright! Oh...
Oh, you've got it caught on the bottom, you bloody jinker!
You're the one with the jigger!
You know, this was a mistake.
Here...
We can finally agree on something for once.
[engine sputters]
Pop: Oh, jesus, now...
It's completely seized.
Ah, I can't move that.
Can't you fix it?
Fix it?
I don't know anything about boats!
Mike sr: Well, what are we gonna do now?
We're drifting out to sea!
I suppose it's the critch curse, finally caught up with us.
Well, it figures.
And the plot's full.
Fox: That must be her.
Adult mark: I was laying eyes on my grandmother
For the first time...
In a stakeout!
Ritche: I bet those bags are full of grandma stuff.
Like cookies and hard candy!
What are you gonna do?
I'm going in.
Fox: Wait.
This doesn't feel right.
Ritche: What, are you crazy?
She's his grandma!
She's gonna hug him and feed him and kiss him.
Trust me.
Not all families are like the ones you see on tv.
I'm not doing this for me.
I'm doing it for mom.
[emotional music]
Mark sr.: When's brendan's birthday?
You don't know when your own brother's birthday is?
October 2nd.
And when's mine?
What?
Oh...
In the summer.
What?
Look, I was easier on brendan
Because he needed me more.
You were...
You were more self-sufficient and you didn't need me.
And now, I mean, do you know how hard it is for a father
To be dependent on his son?
Dad, it's not like that.
I never had a father.
I didn't know what it was to be one.
But seeing you with your boys...
Now I know.
You are a great grandfather.
Ah, well...
Little mark, he's just like you were at that age.
[sighs]
You know, maybe god does give second chances.
I think I got something! What do I do, what do I do?
Bring it up! Hand over hand!
That's it, hand over hand!
Come on, hand over hand, you got it!
Mike sr: Ho-ho-ho! Pop: Oh!
We did it!
No, you did it.
Well done.
♪
[laughs]
Pop: Oh! [laughs]
Look!
Is you alright?
Fine, thanks! Movin' on!
No, no! Wait, wait, wait!
We need a tow!
Yeah, alright.
The motor's just a little trouble.
I could fix it, but the lad here,
He's a nervous nelly!
[laughs]
Adult mark: I had lost an uncle,
And was about to gain a grandmother.
Oh, we don't donate at the door.
Oh, johanna clark?
Johanna: Yes.
My name's mark critch.
Uh, we haven't met before,
But I believe I'm your grandson?
Husband: Who's at the door?
Just... Someone looking for donations.
Husband: Get rid of them!
What-- what do you want?
Money?
No, I just...
Wanted to meet you.
Well, you met me.
Husband: Johanna?
Some things are better left buried in the past.
I have a new life now.
Don't come back here again.
Adult mark: The door closed more firmly
Than uncle brendan's coffin lid.
♪
Adult mark: Mom had come looking for me.
And good thing, too.
She had been hurt by her mother before,
And this apple hadn't fallen far from the family tree.
You were right.
She doesn't want to know me.
♪
Fox: You okay?
Mark: [quietly] yeah.
[knocks loudly]
Husband: Oh, for god's sake!
Remember me?
No point digging up old bones.
You never even told him about me, did ya?
You old bat!
Hi, there!
I'm just her daughter from the first marriage!
Surprise, she's not the vestal virgin you thought!
Have fun with that.
Johanna: You little bitch.
No.
It's critch.
♪
You know, you may not have missed out on much with me,
But you sure missed out on my boys.
Well, that's your loss, not theirs.
Come on, kids, we're going home.
♪
Adult mark: Every family has a story.
Some say we're who we are because of who we come from.
I disagree.
We decide who we are and who our family is.
You live as long as you're remembered.
To me, my family will live forever.
♪