Tropic Sprockets / Oh, Canada

By Ian Brockway

From the auteur Paul Schrader (Master Gardener), who constructs his images like an Advent Calendar with lots of right angles and hard edges, here is his latest “Oh, Canada!” [Showtimes and trailer at TropicCinema.com] The film is predictably dispassionate, treading familiar ground and usual themes, but for devotees of the legendary artist’s work, there are many trademarks and iconic cues.

Leo (Richard Gere) is a famous filmmaker dying of cancer. He has an opportunity to clear his name with his former pupils, so he agrees to a last interview. Malcolm (Michael Imperioli) is in front of the digital camera. Right from the start, a frail Leo demands his wife Emma (Uma Thurman) sit beside him. She is his talisman. Leo tells the story about dodging the Vietnam war by going to Canada. But he begins to lose track of names and the sequence of the events. Leo says he was on his way to Cuba, but in reality he never arrived. Leo is portrayed in flashback by actor Jacob Elordi.

Leo is revered for dodging the draft for ethical concerns, but it is revealed that Leo may have avoided the draft for more selfish concerns in addition to being a womanizer and unfaithful to his wife. Attempting to save his reputation, Emma tries to stop the filming but Malcolm won’t hear of it.

The sequence of the events is unclear, but one thing seems certain: Leo is a serial philanderer. Emma is understandably devastated, her face rictus of shock.

Leo mumbles and then becomes reticent. His mouth drops and he lapses in conversation. Leo loses his meditative story.

At the start of the film, like many of Schrader’s films, Leo’s environment is laid out with precision and exact detail. The wheelchair is perfectly placed. The camera is exact. Schrader positions his characters in the realm of the ascetic but here, the protagonist’s mind begins to unravel and become partially insincere. But is Leo truthful in reality or is he exaggerating for his ego and legacy? Schrader’s characters are invariably on a quest. In “Hardcore” (1979) Jake Van Dorn ventures into the sleazy underworld to find his daughter, but now the underworld is Leo’s own mind and his self-esteem. The momentum of events points to morbidity and loss rather than Bohemian adventures.

This is an adaptation of the novel Foregone by Russell Banks. It has all the usual characteristics of Schrader: compulsion, mania sin and regret, but there are also traces of Samuel Beckett. This is routine fare for the famed director, but his legacy is immutable and a new film by Paul Schrader is forever cause for celebration.

Write Ian at [email protected]

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