Call it a different kind of co-viewing, but Chaz Thorne expects his new film Whirligig will speak to both aging parents and their boomerang kids.

The comedy is about a love affair, ‘but I think at its core, it’s about the phenomenon of boomerang kids, which is something that’s fairly unique to my generation and the generation below me,’ says Thorne (Just Buried). ‘So I think the film is targeted toward baby boomers who are experiencing this phenomenon of their kids returning home, even into their 30s, and those kids themselves.’

Whirligig stars Gregory Smith (Everwood) as a twentysomething who falls for a married woman who lives across the bay from his retired parents’ seaside home. Other cast members include Fiona Highet (Saint Ralph), R.H. Thomson (The Englishman’s Boy), Jennifer Overton (Trailer Park Boys: The Movie), Brian Downey (Snow Angels) and child actor Siam Yu in his first major role.

It wrapped last week in Halifax — produced by Thorne’s Standing 8 Productions, Big Motion Pictures and Two East Productions — after a 200-hour shoot on a tight budget. It’s now in post.

‘You either work with what you have or you don’t make a movie,’ he says of the financing. ‘If you’re a known filmmaker, you can make a large film. Or if you’re an upcoming filmmaker, you can make a small film. [But] the whole middle has fallen out of our industry in terms of supporting talent and it’s a problem.’

‘That being said, because I was working with a lot of people I’d worked with before, and I had a great script [by Michael Amo] as a base to work from, we were very well-prepared.’

Screenwriter Michael Amo (The Listener) produces with David MacLeod (Moby Dick). Whirligig will be distributed through KinoSmith.

Thorne aims to deliver the film in the fall, at which point he’ll shop for a sales agent and hit the festival circuit.