Wri/Dir: Paul Schrader | Cast: Richard Gere, Michael Imperioli, Jacob Elordi. Uma Thurman | US 91′
As Richard Gere moves into the autumn of his life he joins seasoned pro Paul Schrader for another collaboration in this mellow reflection on the life and death of a fictional documentary filmmaker Leonard Fife (Gere).
Gere and American filmmaker Paul Schrader both have a varied selection of hits and near misses under their belts, a highpoint for Schrader was writing Taxi Driver and directing First Reformed. Here in this film-within-a-film he adapts Russell Bank’s novel ‘Foregone’ (his second Bank effort after his 1997 Neo-noir outing Affliction).
Against the wishes of his wife (Thurman) Fife’s former pupils get together to film some revealing ups and downs of his creative career in films and film-making that is slowly winding down. The film unfolds in flashbacks largely visiting a productive period in the 1960s when Fife (played by Jacob Elordi) has moved to Canada purportedly to avoid conscription to the Vietnam war (along with 60,000 others who avoided the draft). These episodes seem like they are skimming the surface rather than getting down and dirty with the truth, if truth was ever possible, even back then. But there again, memories are often, by their very nature, unreliable so Schrader could be forgiven for the narrative’s rather patchy feel.
Oh Canada is a brave effort to capture an era, and Gere gives a suitably wistful, often curmudgeonly, turn in the lead. You might find the whole thing a bit too morbid or even bland. It certainly fails to make much of an impact. Sadly one of Schrader’s less successful outings. @MeredithTaylor
NOW IN UK CINEMAS