“Oh, Canada” - TIFF24 Film Review
This review was originally posted on Film Obsessive.
It feels a bit inadvertently poetic to begin my in-person 2024 Toronto International Film Festival coverage with a movie titled Oh, Canada. The film marks a reunion between director Paul Schrader and actor Richard Gere, who teamed up for American Gigolo in 1980. Oh, Canada is a far cry from their first collaboration, and likely one that will not receive the same amount of critical acclaim. It seeks to act as a meditation on growing old and the desire that often arises in a person’s final days to come clean about their past. Schrader and Gere were likely drawn to the film (adapted from Russell Banks’ Foregone novel) as the two men, both with storied film careers, may be starting to reflect on their own lives and the lies they’ve told. Oh, Canada is not as reflective as it should be, nor does it pose compelling questions about this little thing called life.
courtesy of TIFF
Leonard Fife (Gere) is a revered documentarian who is now the subject of a film by two of his students. In Leonard’s final days, he agrees to sit for an on-camera interview in which he will tell it all. The good, the bad, the infamous, and the unknown. His only stipulation is that his wife, Emma (Uma Thurman), be present so that she can hear the entirety of his story. Oh, Canada switches between the present, where Leonard is played by Gere, and the past, where he is primarily played by Jacob Elordi. At times, Gere will step into the shoes of his younger self.
Part of what makes the premise of Oh, Canada so intriguing is that a secret will be revealed. It’s something Leonard has held so close to his chest that not even his darling wife is aware of what he’s done. We all have secrets, with varying degrees of scandalous nature, but Oh, Canada positions Leonard as a national figure who was known for his anti-Vietnam War work. The press material for the film already tells the reader that Leonard dodged the draft, yet that’s what’s revealed as the aspect of his life that haunts Leonard until the end. The fact that he never served his country makes him believe he’s not a “real man,” like some of his friends who went overseas. This, in itself, is not particularly earth-shattering. There are plenty of draft dodgers who later express regret about not serving. In Bruce Springsteen’s Broadway show, he describes dodging the draft and initially being relieved, but then feeling remorse because someone went in his place. He doesn’t know the man’s name who took his spot, but he knows someone did.
courtesy of TIFF
Leonard doesn’t show that same sort of introspection, nor does he take a particularly strong stance against the Vietnam War. He became known as an essential anti-war voice because his first documentary exposed the United States’ testing of Agent Orange. Yet Leonard didn’t set out to take a stance. He was working on a farm, saw planes dumping multi-colored gases, and decided to film it because he thought he could create a cool, psychedelic montage. It’s this film that blasts him into popularity and jumpstarts his career, but we’re given no look at whether Leonard even believes he did the right thing in releasing his film. What a bombshell it could have been had this man, whose career was built on an anti-war film, turned out to be pro-war?
The blasé nature of the film speaks to what may be the greatest tragedy of Oh, Canada. Perhaps the sadness that Schrader wanted to share was the indecision that plagued Leonard for most of his life. He flitted from woman to woman, city to city, going where the wind took him. When presented with decisions, he chose not to choose. He simply ran away from the problem. The military recruiter calls him a coward and maybe that’s the stance of Oh, Canada as well, but it’s not as well-woven into the fabric of the film as it could be. It also isn’t the most interesting story of a coward that could be told. Plenty of films about men who only want to be brave in their final moments have been made, and Oh, Canada doesn’t distinguish itself from them. Thurman’s character always feels like an afterthought, despite the fact that Leonard asks her to be present for his interview. Gere and Elordi are serviceable in their role as Leonard, but it’s neither’s finest role. Even Schrader’s direction and writing feel restrained, to the detriment of the film.
Oh, Canada is not what one would call an energizing start to the festival. It’s the story of a man who is afraid of the life he’s led and afraid of what comes next. As Leonard says in the film, “When you’re old, all you have is the past, but if the past is a lie, what is left?” It’s a compelling philosophical question, but arguably one that Oh, Canada is more interested in posing than answering. Leonard frames this interview as a “gift” to his wife because he’s finally allowing her to know him. One could argue that this is the coward’s way out, but maybe that’s the path Oh, Canada wanted to take all along.
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