By Erin Free
Worth: $14.50
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Richard Gere, Jacob Elordi, Michael Imperioli, Victoria Hill, Uma Thurman
Intro:
...as a piece of a cinema, it’s just a chore.
Oh, Canada is something of a cinematic reunion, with esteemed writer/director Paul Schrader teaming up once again for the first time in decades with Richard Gere, whose silky, sexy air of indefinable cool he employed to such indelible effect in 1980’s high-style drama American Gigolo. Oh, Canada also sees 78-year-old Schrader returning to the literary well of author Russell Banks, whom he so deftly and unforgettably adapted for the screen in 1997 with the masterful Nick Nolte-James Coburn belter Affliction. Unfortunately, this multiple reunion is a largely unhappy one. Even in his twilight, Schrader has been doing highly impressive work, with recent efforts like Master Gardener (2022), Card Counter (2021) and especially First Reformed (2017) showing that this 1970s figurehead still has it in spades. Oh, Canada, however, is a disappointment. While Schrader has pretty much built his career on crafting films around not-especially-likeable central characters, the protagonist of Oh, Canada is so awful that even the film’s rich sense of style and strong performances can’t provide ballast for the emotional black hole at its centre.
Oh, Canada begins with ageing, cancer-stricken documentary filmmaker and academic Leo Fife (Gere’s commitment to the role is palpable, and his intensity is as admirable as ever) being interviewed by two former students (Michael Imperioli, Victoria Hill), and now Oscar winning filmmakers themselves, about his life and career. With his memory clouded by illness, Leo is something of an unreliable narrator, but he seethes with a strange kind of desperation to tell his story his way, to the frequent horror of his wife Emma (Uma Thurman frets convincingly on the sidelines). Via flashbacks in which Aussie man-of-the-moment Jacob Elordi (whose charisma and screen presence are undeniable, much like Gere in his early days) plays Leo as a young man, we are basically treated to a long line of unpleasantries, as the diffident wannabe writer screws pretty much every woman he passes, whether they’re married or not; leaves behind a number of abandoned children; avoids going to Vietnam via Canada (hence the title); literally stumbles into documentary filmmaking; and basically struts around like a moustachioed dilletante.
While Oh, Canada looks great with its effective use of colour and black-and-white cinematography, and sounds great too with songs and score by Phosphorescent (aka American singer-songwriter Matthew Houck), this could essentially be subtitled “Memoirs of an Arsehole”. It’s certainly a brave move on Schrader’s part, with the writer/director seemingly making a statement about the manner in which great, socially minded art doesn’t necessarily have to emanate from an artist with a kind soul. As an intellectual exercise, that certainly has appeal, but as a piece of a cinema, it’s just a chore. Leo Fife is not just an arsehole, but he’s a boring, annoying one too, and that’s not easy to watch, even for a concise 91 minutes. The stylishly made and intellectually probing Oh, Canada is by no means an embarrassment or blight on the name of Paul Schrader, but it’s definitely not entertainment, even when the director’s dark, sombre body of work is taken into account.
