THE REPUBLIC OF LOVE (SEVILLE PICTURES, 2003)

By Rick Jackson

Anyone looking for a good love story should not miss The Republic of Love. Incurable romantics like Tom and Fay still exist and director Deepa Mehta (Bollywood Hollywood) reaffirms this in her latest effort.

Based on the book by Carol Shields, the screenplay by Mehta and Esta Spalding from a story by Mehta tells you that love at firs sight is nothing to be unafraid or ashamed about. As you watch the two main characters meet and fall head over heels in love, you share in their joy and hope that nothing will change how they feel for each other. As one of the charactres says in the movie, "geography is destiny."

When they both realize they live in the same building and know the same friends, including Tom's two ex-wives, it is a small world indeed.

Bruce Greenwood has played a variety of roles such as John F. Kennedy in Thirteen Days, Ashley Judd's bad husband in Double Jeopardy, the bad guy out to get Harrison Ford in Hollywood Homicide, and the town vigilante who tries to stop Ian Holm in Atom Egoyan's The Sweet Hereafter.

As Tom in Republic of Love, he is host of a late-night call-in show for lonely hearts. Just as he finds love for the first time after three failed marriages, you can see how he has changed from the complex person he was at the beginning, unable to help himself. When love strikes him square in the face, he becomes a new man.

Emilia Fox is wonderful as Fay and she imbues her character with such warmth and fun, you way well be wishing for this to happen to you if you are single.

Watching Tom and Faye is almost a lesson in love. Tom is open to the possibility that love is something great and Greenwood gives him all the room he needs to breathe. When Fay's parents separate, she is so hurt she doesn't understand the mid-life crisis her father is going through. This confuses her to the point of calling off her marriage to Tom because she feels her decision to marry him was too rash.

By the end of the film, Fay realizes how stupid she was in realizing that her welfare is most important to her and no matter how corny and sentimental it may be, love still stands for something. Tom, in turn, wants to forget her, too, but can't forget how much she means to him.

In showing the travails of the love between two people, the director is expressing simply how much love means in a world where everything in it has become so serious.

Like Bollywood Hollywood, the optimism of being in love is something to be held with the strongest beliefs. Having faith in your partner is not a liability but a wonderful experience to keep on sharing for the rest of your life.

In The Republic of Love: love has its ups and downs, love hurts, but love is also eternal. However, without faith, there isn't a chance to be blissfully happy.

It is rated 14A, with the warnings: language may offend and sexual content.

February 28, 2004

Copyright 2004 Rick Jackson