A film
review by James Berardinelli for ReelViews.net.
The Barbarian Invasions (Les Invasions barbares) is a follow-up (calling it a sequel
seems too trite for such a sublime motion picture) to director Denys Arcand's 1986 international
art-house hit, The Decline of the
American Empire. Obviously, after the decline and fall, the barbarians
arrive. (This seems to be stretching the metaphor too far, but whatever...)
Where the earlier movie was about sex and vitality, The Barbarian Invasions deals with an equally universal topic:
mortality. However, although the specter of death hovers over the entire film,
it is neither a grim nor a depressing experience. Arcand has injected a great
deal of wit into the movie, and it meshes perfectly with the anticipated
pathos. And one could easily make the argument that The Barbarian Invasions is as much about life as it is about death,
and, considering how intertwined the subjects are, it's hard to form a counter-argument.
The film
opens with one of the protagonists from The
Decline of the American Empire, Rémy (Rémy
Girard), facing death. Before Rémy's days are done, his ex-wife, Louise (Dorothée Berryman), persuades the dying
man's estranged son, Sébastien (Stéphane
Rousseau), to make the trans-Atlantic journey from London to Montreal for a
reconciliation. Their initial meetings are not promising, but a thaw begins
with Sébastian recruiting many of Rémy's old friends to join him at his
bedside. In addition, there is one newcomer - the deeply troubled Nathalie (Marie-Josée Croze), who is recruited by
Stéphane to provide heroin used to dull Rémy's pain. However, as a drug addict,
not only is she unreliable, but the potential for an overdose may mean that she
has less time to live than Rémy.
The film
starts out slowly, and, for a while, it looks like it might be just another
movie about a fractured family coming to grips with its dysfunction. Indeed,
the underlying material of The Barbarian
Invasions could easily have been used to develop a soap opera, so Arcand
must be given credit for detouring the storyline off the main track and onto a
road that, while moving on a parallel trajectory, is less melodramatic and more
intellectually satisfying. In the end, our tears are because we identify with
these characters, not because the script has inelegantly manipulated our
emotions.
The film
contains scenes of offbeat comedy. For example, when Sébastian is trying to
obtain heroin to ease his father's pain, he deduces that the most likely people
to inform him where to find a dealer are the police. So he goes to the nearest
police station, requests to see a narcotics officer, and asks his question. He
is firmly told that the police are in the business of taking dealers off the
street, not providing them with new customers. Arcand finds the right tone for
this scene and others like it. It is not so fatuous that it becomes mocking,
but the humor in the situation is evident.
The
acting is uniformly good, although few of the actors will be known outside of
Canadian circles. One exception is Marie-Josée Croze, who won the Cannes acting
award for Best Actress. She was a standout in Ararat and has appeared in a number of movies obtaining U.S.
theatrical release. In a way, however, having a cast of relative unknowns serves only to enhance The Barbarian Invasions' effectiveness,
since there are no familiarity issues to get between the viewer and the
characters.
This is
a movie in which words and interaction take precedence over plot and action - a
so-called character piece. It's a
film in which friends gather to meditate upon history, philosophy, and their
shared pasts. In many ways, Rémy's death is the kind of passing we might all
wish for. He does not suffer for long, goes out on his own terms, and, at the
end, is surrounded by his friends and loved ones. He is also given the
opportunity to heal old wounds and speak his mind. Who could ask for anything
more?
Labels:
comedy, crime, drama, mystery, romance, tragedy
No comments:
Post a Comment