MEMOIRES AFFECTIVES (ALLIANCE/VIVA FILM, 2004)

By Rick Jackson

Directed by Francis Leclerc, Memoires Affectives is a highly charged drama about a veterinarian named Alexander Tourneur who wakes up from a coma only to find he cannot remember anything about his life, including relatives, his business partner and girlfriends.

The screenplay by Leclerc and Marcel Beaulieu focuses on Alexander's plight and his return to some kind of normalcy in what may be a second chance at life, thanks to an accident which almost killed him if it weren't for a stranger who took him to the hospital.

Roy Dupuis, whose screen credits include Jesus of Montreal, Seraphin: Heart of Stone, and The Barbarian Invasions, brings to the screen one of the most convincing portraits of a man determined to live a normal life. As he questions his ex-wife, daughter, business partner and others, he finds them creating memories that aren't true.

Alexander becomes an enigmatic character thanks to Leclerc and Beaulieu who strike a balance between reality and fiction by letting you sort out the truth by leaving out the preordained happy ending from your average Hollywood drama. By gaining your sympathy as he wakes up, they depend on your personal feelings toward Alexander to keep you watching and it works.

Dupuis gives him an inner strength that makes him real enough to be believable, and there are times you sense what might happen next but each time it is a turn only he can make for essentially it is his thoughts and feelings guiding the story as if some otherworldly imaginative force, mysterious and unseen, is controlling him.

From here Alexander learns something he never realized before the accident. This is the truth behind a family tragedy which he faces with his estranged brother in Toronto. It is one of the most emotional and heart-wrenching scenes in the entire film, with it's brutally honest images transcending the imaginaton long enough to be real, for not only Alexander but for us, too.

The music score captures the mood effectively throughout as it underscores the inescapable fear of the unknown as Alexander faces the world from the perspective of a man hurt deep inside and not able to deal with his demons until after his life changing accident.

The cinematography captures the mood perfectly, especially at the very beginning when you see him alone in bed. The isolation is symbolic of the kind of life he had, driven to work by day as a veterinarian, and by night by the bottle as an escape from reality. Each scene thereafter - when he looks at family pictures and drinks alone - he is haunted by the partial memories which come back but make no sense because he never really understood them. The mood in low lighting each time brings home the continued abyss of solitude which still is with him, even at the end when he discovers the truth about his father's death.

No other film at this year's Kingston Canadian Film Festival strikes a sense of desperation and truth through the eyes of personal tragedy from one man. It is almost Bergmanesque in that it examines the heart and soul of a man's suffering.

Only through searching through his past is he able to, at least, have the chance to redeem himself and hope for a decent future, and it is here where the film ends. The last shot of his face hurt and dishevelled by a pain far more greater than the accident that took his memory shows he is on the way to recovery but still a long way to go.

March 7, 2005

Copyright 2005 Rick Jackson

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

THE STATEMENT (SONY PICTURES CLASSICS, 2003)***

By Rick Jackson

Based on a true story, The Statement is a throwback to the Cold War thrillers of John Le Carre and Graham Greene. Michael Caine stars as Pierre Brossard, a Frenchman who was involved in the execution of Jews in 1944. After the end of World War II, he is wanted as a war criminal. When the story picks up in 1992 in France, you learn he has been living in exile in various Roman Catholic monasteries and safe houses. He has been protected by an inner circle of friends in a Catholic society, one which is dwindling due to the changing political climate within the church itself.

The screenplay by Ronald Harwood (The Pianist), based on a novel by Brian Moore, is inspired by real-life war criminal Paul Touvier, who executed Jewish hostages and was protected by an informal network of right-wing Catholics.

Although based on fact, it focuses on the last years of Brossard as he tries to escape from the clutches of a Jewish group who are bent on killing him for his war crimes.

Some American film critics, like Ebert and Roeper, felt the film was shallow and unconvincing as a historical drama. I strongly disagree. Harwood gives you just enough to hold your interest. The rest of the story you have to listen to carefully to unravel the plot threads.

Flashbacks in black and white tell the story that has haunted Brossard and it precipitates his heart condition. The sequence between him and his ex-wife Nicole (Charlotte Rampling) lets you experience the tension that once filled their lives and the awful result.

Tilda Swinton plays Annemarie Livi, a judge who wants to get at the truth behind Brossard's statement in which he presumably confessed. It all becomes more cloak and dagger like an Alfred Hitchcock film, with the statement serving as a macguffin.

Along the way she joins up with Colonel Roux (Jeremy Northam) who shares the same empathy and concern for Brossard. The two make a great team and there are some close calls as they try to get to him first.

In supporting roles, there are the key higher ups in the French government: Armand Bertier (Alan Bates in his last role) as a close friend of Levi's, David Manenbaum (Matt Craven) who once was an officer who stood beside Brossard in the killings of Jews, and John Neville as a man whose loyalty was once for Brossard but has suddenly changed for political reasons that are unexplained.

Caine gives one of his best performances as a man hiding from his past. You see him play a role that shows him with the same cunning for survival, such as two scenes when he defends himself against two assassins, and the timidity of an old man trying to live out his final years in exile.

Under Jewison's direction, The Statement is an absorbing thriller from beginning to end.

February 21, 2004

Copyright 2004 Rick Jackson

8:17 P.M. DARLING STREET (CHRISTAL FILMS, 2003)

By Rick Jackson

Written and directed by Bernard Emond, this is a haunting story of one man's introspective look at his life while waiting for his girlfriend to come back home. Told in flashback, he begins with the accident that saved his life. While driving home in his car he decides to tie a shoelace and ends up crashing into another vehicle driven by a Chinese man. At the very moment of the crash, an explosion demolishes the building he lives in.

Luc Picard gives a strong performance as Gerard, an ex-reporter and member of Alcoholics Anonymous. In a monotone voice, he relates his inner demons and how fate has left him wanderlust for answers about the existence of God and why he should have survived the explosion. When he learns a four-year-old girl had died, he wishes he could have traded places with her. Early in the film, he tells us, "There's something profoundly insulting about owing one's life to an untied shoelace."

Moving back to the same neighbourhood in Hochelaga where he grew up, he is determined to keep looking for those answers. His investigation takes him to Outremont, Maniwaki and Quebec's south shore.

Interspersed throughout the narrative are Gerard's thoughts. Divorced three times and a liar, cheat and a thief, the bottle was his only friend for 25 years. At one moment during his journey of self-discovery he goes on one last binge. He visits Madame Caron (Marika Boies), a disabled woman whose cheating husband died in the fire. Her lack of remorse echoes the mood of the entire film. As he cradles the bottle in the front seat of his car, life becomes meaningless once more as all of his pain goes away with each swallow. The look of contentment on his face resembles a dead man in his casket.

Picard literally puts you in a place where darkness continues to plague his very existence. His inner demons lash out in that one last binge where he says all tacts gets lost once you've taken a few drinks. The next moment you see him getting into trouble with a gang of thugs when he steals some of their antlers.

Emond's latest reminded me of Ingmar Bergman, who has dealt with life and death in The Seventh Seal and Wild Strawberries. The Knight in the former constantly asks questions that are unanswered, while Eberhard Isak Borg, the professor in the latter, is afraid of dying, of ultimately drying up and facing a horrible fate.

Although Gerard in 8:17 P.M. Darling Street is wishing he did die, it is God who is not ready to take him yet. It is He who sees hope in this individual; Gerard, too, accepts what the 12 Steps to recovery has to say about a higher authority. By film's end, he has become a new man ready to live life to the fullest with Angela (Guylaine Tremblay), the woman who cares deeply for him.

Cinematographer Jean-Pierre St. Louis keeps the focus of the film's theme constant throughout by letting you experience Gerard's descent into loneliness and despair with the darkly lit streets and bars. Even his apartment has only one small light which makes it appear bigger than it actually is, to underscore the abyss from which he is trying to escape unwillingly.

The brightness of day at the beach that frames the beginning and end symbolizes his one last chance at redemption.

Augmented by Robert Marcel Lepage's music score, 8:17 P.M. Darling Street is as much absorbing as it is thought provoking. It is also one of the best films at this year's Kingston Canadian Film Festival.

February 7, 2004

Copyright 2004 Rick Jackson

THREE NEEDLES (SEVILLE PICTURES, 2005)

By Rick Jackson

In this episodic drama about AIDS, writer/director Thom Fitzgerald brings a sense of urgency to do something in addressing the global epidemic which has affected the Third World. Underneath the separate stories, it is the sheer humanity and concern to actually work at this resolve that underscores the need for us to react positively.

Set in China, Canada and Africa, we are introduced to a young novice and aspiring actor in Canada who is given needles, and a man who returns home to be circumcised for he believes it will mean his growth to manhood.

The most impressive of the three is the one in Africa. Chloe Sevigny plays Clara, a nun who wants to help the natives. You learn for anyone who wants to give blood, they have to be at least 12 years old and up and healthy. Each blood donor makes $500.00 and there is a continuuing need for blood products.

Safe sex is not practiced here and superstitions among the Africans make it impossible to do all that is needed. Asisting Clara are nuns Mary (Sandra Oh) and Hilde (Olympia Dukakis). They all help the young white doctors in their struggle against the AIDs epidemic.

One of the sub-plots involves the nuns with Mr. Hallyday, the plantation owner who manipulates the situation since he has the money and power to make a difference. Clara offers herself as a sex slave for him in exchange for the supplies the hospital needs.

In China, you meet Jin Ping (Lucy Liu), who travels from one rural village to another seeking anyone who can give blood. When she meets a rich farmer named Tong Sam (Tanabade Cholepikaltong), he uses his influence to try and find a solution to the AIDS there after his wife and child fall ill as a result of unsanitary conditions while giving blood.

Back in Canada, Shawn Ashmore plays Denny who supports his parents by pursuing a porno acting career. Stockard Channing plays her mother Olive and she doesn't know about her son's chosen profession. The gravity of his situation becomes apparent when he hides his negative test results for AIDS from everyone.

The plot threads move back and forth among the three stories which tell us how wide the AIDS pandemic can quickly develop. Although not all the characters are fleshed out like they should, it is important to remember the overall theme and the efforts to deal with it. Each example in the three countries delineates the problems inherent in finding a cure, and it is not easy to find one due to the increasing financial and political problems of this health crisis.

Tom Harting's stunning cinematography, especially in Africa, shows the irony of such a beautiful country faced with the inability to fight due to the ignorance of the population and its far reaching problem which is overwhelming.

The performances by Sevigny, Oh, and Dukakis show the difficulties in a bad situation getting worse with Sevigny's role symbolic of the acts of desperation in convincing those who are in position to do more to help.

Roberts plays Mr. Hallyday with the same cunning and resourcefulness as any villain and it's Fitzgerald's fault in letting him turn a nun against her own strict morals.
Not knowing the basis for his thinking for this, it's hard to know if it was based on fact or not.

Despite its plodding pace, Three Needles manages to succeed in bringing across the gravity of the world's AIDs epidemic. Dukakis' narration helps keep it in focus.

March 11, 2006

Copyright 2006 Rick Jackson

LUCID (MONGREL MEDIA, 2005)

By Rick Jackson

Co-written, produced and directed by Winnipegger Sean Garrity, Lucid is an incisive and thought provoking drama about reality vs. delusion.

On the surface, Garrity and his screenwriting partner, Jonas Chernick, who also plays psychologist Joel Rothman, focus their story on him and his average caseload which includes three patients who figure prominently: Sophie (Lindy Booth), a drug addict with signs of post-traumatic stress disorder; Chandra (Michelle Nolden), a delusional compulsive-obsessive whose sister has been left in a coma after an accident; and Victor Koblinsky (Callum Keith Rennie), a paranoid, angry man who has a history of domestic violence and is also delusional.

As you watch Rothman work with them, something strange is afoot but we are never really clear exactly what it is, including Rothman's own problem with sleep deprivation. Instead of explaining the root of it, we are thrown into his upheaval existence which only he is to blame after he is caught sleeping with another woman when his wife pays him a surprise visit. When his patients begin to show a series of hallucinations, they are mixed with tragicomic and neurotic results.

Garrity's effective direction keeps you on the edge of your seat with the odd touch of humour to keep you entertained. Although there are some loose ends which leave you wondering what happened or where or why, it is the director's own sense of creating something different from mainstream Hollywood.

Despite a Canadian cast not as polished as their American counterparts and Chernick's penchant to overact in some scenes, Lucid manages to become a unique Canadian moviegoing experience. You wonder if, like the characters in his movie, are either asleep or awake watching it. A satisfying conclusion makes it all worth the price of admission.

It is rated 14A, with the warnings: coarse language, disturbing content and mature theme. After premiering at the Kingston Canadian Film Festival, it opened for a regular run at The Screening Room on April 7.

March 11, 2006

Copyright 2006 Rick Jackson

C.R.A.Z.Y. (TVA FILMS, 2005)

By Rick Jackson

Family life is celebrated in C.R.A.Z.Y., a powerful and intelligently told film co-written and directed by Jean-Marc Vallee. Framed at the beginning and end by the birth and eath of a family member in the Beaulieu family, it's what happens in between that serves as a universal slice of life. It is told through the eyes of son Zach, who is born on Christmas Day 1960.

In their screenplay, Vallee and Francois Boulay focus on Zach's own individuality as a person who felt different from his three older brothers and one younger brother. As the narrator, he reveals how strong the family ties are and the emotions and feelings of how he managed to survive as the gay member, and his father who accepted him back in the family fold after ten years.

Early in the film, Zach says, "I had just turned seven and unwittingly I had declared war on my father." While growing up he is called a fairy and a faggot but it's his determination to live in a world of diversity, including a world trip to visit Jerusalem, that he comes to terms with his religious beliefs. Raised a staunch Roman Catholic, he becomes an athiest but leaves the possibility open for change.

His brothers Raymond, Antoine, Christian, and Yvan all have their own problems. As adults, all of them but Raymond, the oldest, is able to cope with life until he becomes a drug addict.

How Vallee shapes the mult-layers of family life underscores the problems faced by these five brothers. For anyone who grew up in a large family, you will be able to identify with it.

One of the most important characters is Gervais, the father, well played by Michael Cote. His strong performance holds the film together as the strict disciplinarian because he feels his children must learn to grow up responsibly. For this family it becomes a testing ground for the unwelcome changes in attitude, including disrespect for your elders.

Religious symbolism guides the story's main plot thread since the church plays an important role in the development of French-Canadian life. Quite effective is how Vallee shows a teenaged Zach at the midnight mass rising above the congregation singing "Sympathy For The Devil" by The Rolling Stones.

A box-office hit in Quebec in 2005, C.R.A.Z.Y. closed the Kingston Canadian Film Festival on its last night with a free screening.

March 11, 2006

Copyright 2006 Rick Jackson

SIX FIGURES

By Rick Jackson

Written and directed by David Christenson, Six Figures is one of the most excruciating dull films I have ever sat through. The entire cast all talk in such monotone voices there isn't one redeeming character.

Christenson's screenplay is based on the novel by Fred Leebron which focuses on a man in his mid-thirties and his mid-life crisis. Not having the book, I cannot tell how faithful he is to it.

J. R. Bourne plays Warner, who works at a corporation where he is a dealing with an important client. It's an important portfolio and unbeknownst to him his success or failure with the company will decide if he will be kept on or dismissed. During this whole time, he and his wife Claire (Caroline Cave) have bought a house. You also learn that she has been given a raise at her job at the local gallery where she is a valuable employee. Meanwhile, Warner is put on probation when his deal doesn't come through. Just before that happens, his supervisor advises him this is not the right time to buy a new home.

When Claire is later beaten up in what may be a robbery attempt, since this is not made clear, the entire film changes direction by becoming a case of wife abuse due to Warner's past history. It all ends up being a long winded daytime drama with the authorities seemingly taking control of a situation still under investigation.

Poorly edited by Emma Barry who lets you assume the worst in deciding Warner's fate, the entire film is mired in a series of predictable events and emotions which are completely cliched. You've also seen it all before.

The rest of the cast features Deborah Grover as Claire's mother, Louise; Brooklynn Proulx as Sophie, Warner and Claire's oldest child; Andrew Krivanek as Dr. Lyon, and Marty Antonini as Detective Norton.

Christenson's latest effort is timeworn and hardly exciting. You don't need to be reminded of your financial problems, especially if you have recently gone through something like this. For those who haven't, it is an example of the worst acting in a Canadian film so far this year.

It is rated 14A, with the warnings: coarse language and mature theme.

March 11, 2006

Copyright 2006 Rick Jackson

LOVE IS WORK (2005)

By Rick Jackson

Written and directed by John Kalangis, from his own story, Love Is Work looks at five couples who are at different stages in their relationships. Watching it all unfold, you immediately come to the conclusion that all five conversations are more real since each participant is locked in the present with their true thoughts and feelings. This is why the entire film rings true as an evocative and timely drama set in a restaurant in Toronto.

Before the film begins you already know that love is complex and Kalangis doesn't offer any quick fix solutions because there is nothing simple about love between two people. For this reason their conversations are a natural progression and this makes what may seem simple so profound.

The women come across as impatient and unimpressed with the dishonesty, deception and uncomfortable positions their men have put them in. All they want is completely the opposite. They see this as the foundation of any relationship, which the men fail to grasp completely.

The women as you will observe are not perfect, especially when you see both sexes come unhinged at the drop of a hasty remark or action without thinking.

Men like to boast about their conquests with the opposite sex and they are afraid to commit, want to wait longer before tying the knot, and are unsure of themselves when it comes to focussing on strengthening their biased opinions about love and women in general.

Since there is not any psychiatrist or sex therapist to guide us through these five couples and their conversations, Kalangis is content to let the film work by itself and it does so with amazing results. The couples whose relationships are on thin ice are exposed. Real true love becomes not just a Hollywood stereotype, but a concept where it may actually exist under the right circumstances.

The ensemble cast features Fab Filippo as Victor, Shauna MacDonald as Celia, Kathryn Zeana as Samantha, Ryan McVittie as Charlie, and Natalie Radford as Zoe.

Kalangis keeps everything in perspective with a lot of close-up shots to let us experience the veracity of each character. The expressions on their faces often speak volumes before they say anything.

It is clear from the beginning this could well pass for a documentary because it reveals our true nature as human beings who seek companionship or something more permanent. To see it come to fruition, we must first understand ourselves better before deciding to make the next important step.

Both men and women, in general, as evidenced here need to spend more time speaking out and discussing the issues important to any relationships, especially if you want love to work toward a more positive and real conclusion.

March 11, 2006

Copyright 2006 Rick Jackson

SAINTS-MARTYRS-DES-DAMNES (CHRISTAL FILMS, 2005)

By Rick Jackson

In his directorial debut, writer/director Robin Aubert celebrates the language of film with Saints-Martyrs-Des-Damnes with its penchant for being a drama, a thriller and a mystery. Its meandering plot threads are reminiscent of the TV series, Twin Peaks from a few years back. Yet its superior storytelling leaves you more absorbed as you try to figure out what is really going on here.

Francois Chenier plays Flavian Juste who is assigned by his boss to cover a story in a town where some mysterious things have been going on for some time. Unbekownst to us, we do not learn the real reason for him going there until the very end.

This only contributes to making it all one of the most intriguing stories ever put on celluloid. The elements of a ghost bride that crosses the road in front of Flavian's car is reminiscent of Tim Burton and, like this apparition, if it is one, slowly arouses your curiosity more and more until you become enthralled by the other elements of horror much later on.

You meet the Malvinas, played by Monique Mercure and Monique Miller. They, too, are enough to make you want to stay in your seat.

At no time is there not anything happening after the pre-credit opening sequence where you are introduced to the main characters.

Once Flavian arrives in town with Armand, certain events begin to build up the drama unfolding, including a clever mystery. It begins with the disappearance of Armand who we learn, after what seems a long time, has been captured by a mysterious figure in white.

With the inclusion of other characters such as Melanie Blackburn, Mede (Mayday), and the mayor of the town, Flavian is persuaded to think that Armand has left town and to forget about him. However, he doesn't believe that he has left and starts to question the townsfolk who are mostly uncooperative.

It is almost a reminder of the 1956 classic film, Invasion of the Body Snatchers in which the townsfolk suddenly become something more out of the ordinary. Unlike it, Aubert's latest changes into a horror-thriller like another classic, The Body Snatcher (1945) where ghoulish goings-on take over.

Michael Arcand's clever editing keeps you on the edge of your seat as you sort things out. You don't know where the story is going to end up next as each twist and turn keeps you guessing.

Cinematographer Steve Asselin underscores the bleakness of the film's title by creating an eerie atmosphere most American filmmakers who like to make strange movies could learn from. His sense of foreboding from the very beginning gets captured right away because you know something is going to happen. Yet, you are never really sure.

Like Aubert, whose direction gives little away, Saints-Martyrs-Des-Damnes becomes an exercise in real terror. The last ten minutes ties up the plot threads nicely. It may shock you if you are not ready, or if you haven't been paying close attention. It is all low key and exciting as it builds up to the unforgettable climax. This is a film with a lot more to appreciate and experience.

March 4, 2006

Copyright 2006 Rick Jackson

THE END OF SILENCE

By Rick Jackson

The End of Silence, which played last night at The Screening Room as part of the Kingston Canadian Film Festival, is a compelling love story. Written and directed by Anita Doren, it opens and closes with silence. The absence of dialogue speaks volumes and it allows us to make up our minds exactly where the story is going. Her ideas celebrate a mode of expression that is so abstract, the impact rejoices in subtlety over substance.

The two main characters are Darya, a Russian ballerina and Eddie, who was married but is now single. For Darya, coming to Toronto means freedom and access to everything, a testament to the capitalistic society she has entered. When she finds love which is, at first, obscured by flirting, it is her feelings underneath her shy exterior that brings out a sense of belonging to something more than just working as a ballerina. We learn that she doesn't find it interesting anymore, leaves her ballet company and proceeds to Pearson International Airport to go home. As she waits there, she reconsiders and stays in Toronto.

Despite not being able to understand English very well, she ends up living for five nights at a local motel. Her meeting with Eddie, who is sitting across the floor in a restaurant where he is reading a detective novel, is fortuitous but not altogether far-fetched. After all, this is a romance and it doesn't take long before the two of them begin to share something special. Their chemistry makes the entire film work from the time their eyes first meet. You want them to get together and we are not disappointed.

Darya's freedom to do what she wants becomes an adventure. She samples Canadian pizza, ice cream and, along the way, finds herself feeling something toward Eddie. We just don't know for sure and Doron's screenplay nicely lets them work things out as if they are acting impromptu instead of memorizing their lines.

When Darya throws away her slippers, she realizes she shouldn't be abandoning her career totally, and later goes back to retrieve them. Staying at Eddie's, she is able to understand how society over here works. She realizes she can't just give up everything just because she is tired of it, and comes to believe in the world of ballet once again because it's in her blood. It has become her life force and we are thrilled to see her back. There is a wonderful fantasy sequence where she dances on a polished floor all dressed up as a professional dancer she really aspires to be secretly in real-life.

Ekaterina Chtchelkanova is perfect as the innocent Darya, whose vulnerability and charm works on you from the moment you first see her, while John Tokatlidas gives a solid performance as a man who sees something in Darya and wants to see it develop. Having been through one marriage, he is careful not to go too fast.

In an excellent supporting role, singer/songwriter Sarah Harmer reluctantly accepts Darya into her sphere of things as the other woman, although she is no longer attached to Eddie, her ex. She even tries to help her get a job.

As for the title of the film, it suggests more than one thing: the world of Russian dance which has left her feel alone and helpless and where her own opinions have been stifled by communism, and Darya's mother whose silence on the other end of the phone means her family does not support her decision to stay in Canada.

As a symbol of communication, it means being able to have the freedom to question without any fear of any kind and speak out when you want to. It is Darya's relationship with Eddie that gives her the courage to get over this control over her and able to feel like a human being again. Her cry of despair over her mother in the bathroom sequence hurts because she hoped her mother would support her. The end of silence comes at a price, but because there is little dialogue here, one suspects there is still hope for reconciliation.

Watching Eddie and Darya together, it is not completely clear if it is going to work out, but it does give us an opportunity to visit them. Darya's dream of lifelong happiness is not shattered, while Eddie just exists as he always has. There is no pat ending just hope for the future, and this gives the film a resounding roar of approval as not just another Hollywood production where you want a happy ending. If you think about both characters, they are happy. We don't need to be reminded because their actions speak louder than any dialogue could.

Well paced, Doron's latest effort confirms there are still good movies about romance being made. The End of Silence is as triumphant as it is understanding and reflective. It is also the best film at the 2006 Kingston Canadian Film Festival, and one of the best of the year. Don't miss it.

March 11, 2006

Copyright 2006 Rick Jackson