23/25
Based on the novel „Foregone” by Russell Banks
Line of Events
Leonard Fife, one of sixty thousand draft dodgers and deserters who fled to Canada to avoid service in Vietnam, reveals all his secrets to demythologize his mythical life. After his adaptation of Verijäljet (1997), this is the second time Paul Schrader has directed one of Banks’ novels for the screen.
Quoted in Film Junk Podcast: Episode 961: In a Violent Nature + TIFF 2024 (2024)
It is a drama about inadvertent draft dodgers between Virginia and Montreal in the late 1960s and in 2023. Leo Fife (Jacob Elordi/Richard Gere) is a famous left-wing documentary filmmaker in Canada who dies of cancer in 2023.
However, he insists that his wife Emma (Uma Thurman), also a former student, be present during filming
Leo allows two former students, Malcolm (Michael Imperioli) and Diana (Victoria Hill), to interview him for a CBC documentary about his life. We soon learn that the myth about Leo’s past as a Vietnam War opponent and free-spirited Cuban traveler differs from Leo’s current (true?) truth.
We learn that Leo’s escape to Canada did not match the myth
Leo is a little confused, but the story he tells is one of a superficial, aimless life that caused much suffering to others, including his two ex-wives, Amy (Penelope Mitchell) and Alicia (Kristine Froseth), and son Cornel (Zach Shaffer). „Oh, Canada” is a strange film in many ways, but it tells a compelling story about the myths we all create about ourselves.
Uma Thurman succeeds in portraying Emma, who initially resists Leo’s truth-telling but then quietly accepts it
Paul Schrader’s use of multiple actors in multiple roles is confusing and unnecessary, but Richard Gere does a great job trying to tell the truth to the woman he spent 30 years with. Oh, Canada is not about avoiding the Vietnam War; it’s a drama about confronting your own myths.