Tom at the Farm [Tom à la ferme] **½ (2013, Xavier Dolan, Pierre-Yves Cardinal, Lise Roy) – Movie Review

In this French-Canadian gay film, made in Quebec, director Xavier Dolan stars as Tom, who is in a torment of grief and depression just after the death of his male lover.

He hoves up uninvited at the family farm and meets the family of the man, who was a closeted homosexual. The mother didn’t know her son’s sexual orientation, or obviously of his relationship with Tom. Tom and the mother share a deep bond but can they relate to each and connect, or will they destroy each other?

This doomy essay in death, grief and loss isn’t as profound as it needs to be – these are big subjects. And Dolan’s screenplay, based on Michel Marc Bouchard’s stage play isn’t nearly as clear or involving as it needs to be. Motivations, emotions, developments and feelings are murky and often unexplained.

We’re looking for revelation and enlightenment, a bit of drama maybe. Some poignant or clever lines even. The screenplay needs a big rewrite workover and makeover.

Its setting of the one location of a gloomy farm betrays its theatre origins, but it’s not too stagey, though it’s not too cinematic either. The performances lack fire and conviction. It was never going to be a jolly or heart-warming experience, so it wouldn’t be likely to win audience awards at film festivals. Indeed, it was one of the disappointments at 2013’s London Film Festival, though it was nominated as Best Film.

Dolan’s talented and confident, but maybe he’s bitten off more than he can chew this time as writer, director and star. It’s his fourth film and he’s only 25 in 2014.

Dolan was born on March 20 1989 in Québec. He is an actor and writer, known for Heartbeats (2010), Laurence Anyways (2012) and I Killed My Mother (2008), a semi-autobiographical story about Dolan as a young homosexual at odds with his mother.

Dolan came back brilliantly with Mommy at the London Film Festival in 2014.

http://derekwinnert.com/mommy-2014-anne-dorval-antoine-olivier-pilon-suzanne-clement-movie-review/

(C) Derek Winnert 2014 derekwinnert.com