45/34
Based on the novel „Foregone“ by Russell Banks
Story
Leonard Fife, one of the sixty thousand draft dodgers and deserters who fled to Canada to avoid serving in Vietnam, shares all his secrets to demystify his mythologized life.. This marks the second time Paul Schrader has directed one of Banks‘ novels for the screen, following the adaptation of Affliction (1997).. Featured in Film Junk Podcast: Episode 961: In a Violent Nature + TIFF 2024 (2024).
It is an accidental dodger drama set between Virginia and Montreal in the late 1960s and 2023
Leo Fife (Jacob Elordi/Richard Gere) is a famous left-wing documentary filmmaker in Canada who died of cancer in 2023. Leo allows two former students, Malcolm (Michael Imperioli) and Diana (Victoria Hill), to interview him for a CBC documentary about his life. However, he insists that his wife, Emma (Uma Thurman), also a former student, be present throughout the filming.
varied from Leo’s present (real?) truth
We soon learn the myth of Leo’s past as a Vietnam War resistance fighter and free-spirited traveler to Cuba. Leo is somewhat confused, but the story he tells is of a shallow, directionless life that has caused much pain to others, including his two ex-wives, Amy (Penelope Mitchell) and Alicia (Kristine Froseth), and son Cornel (Zach Shaffer). We learn that Leo’s flight to Canada did not fit the myth.
Uma Thurman does a great job of portraying Emma as initially resisting Leo’s truth but moving toward a quiet acceptance
„Oh, Canada“ is a strange film in many ways, but it tells a gripping story about the myths we all allow to be made about ourselves. Paul Schrader’s use of multiple actors in multiple roles is confusing and unnecessary, but Richard Gere does a great job of struggling to tell his truth to the woman he’s spent 30 years with. „Oh, Canada“ is not about avoiding the Vietnam War; it is, instead, a drama about coming to terms with our own myths.