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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Sir Ian shines through..., January 15, 2007
This review is from: Emile (DVD)
"Emile" is a quiet little film with echoes of "Goodbye Mr. Chips", and "Wild Strawberries" and perhaps a bit of Eugene O'Neill. The title character, played by Ian McKellen, is a dignified old professor who returns to his native Canada from England to receive an honorary degree. He uses the opportunity to reconnect with his niece Nadia and her daughter in Vancouver, who are his only remaining relatives.
McKellen gives an exemplary performance playing an old man who is forced to come to terms with the ghosts of his past. Emile was the fortunate brother who escaped a hardscrabble farm by winning a scholarship to study in England. Many decades later on returning to Canada, he painfully revisits his past, dreaming of both brothers. Brother Carl is muscular and cruel, brother Fred is gentle, reflective and possibly a more deserving talent as a writer than Emile---which has left some guilty scars on the old man.
Further weighing on Emile's conscience is his failure to protect and care for Carl's child Nadia after her parents are killed in an accident.
There is some awkwardness in the structure of this film. When McKellen's character revisits his past, he is shown as an old man with his youthful brothers, which can cause the viewer some confusion. Plus the young actress who plays Emile's grand niece in the present day also portrays her mother as a girl in the orphanage flashbacks. But McKellen turns in a sterling performance, and the other actors are all excellent as well. For people who now and then enjoy a small film filled with subtle nuances , this should fit the bill.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good imagry but flabby structure, May 26, 2006
This review is from: Emile (DVD)
Emile is one of those films I really wanted to work well. The casting is first notch, from Sir Ian McKellen (in the title role), Deborah Cara Unger (his niece Nadia), Theo Crane (Maria, Nadia's daughter), Chris Martin (Carl, one late brother), Tygh Runyan (Freddy, another late brother), to Ian Tracy (Tom the repairman).
The movie relies heavily on flashbacks, which occur all too often. When these happen, the action stops and McKellen's face freezes. He appears as an his older self but wears clothes of the past, sometimes talking to characters (who respond to him) other times passively observing. In some flashbacks, he is present at events which we now know happened when he was out of the country. The last flashback in the movie is the least plausible, as it happens when McKellen is in the middle of giving an acceptance speech for an honourary degree! Better material for a nightmare, perhaps; there was a good dream sequence early in the movie.
The interaction between McKellen and Unger is first-rate, moving from the "hostility" type of hospitality, through confrontation, sadness, acceptance and finally mutual recognition. Though we aren't presented with a complete account of what happened all those years ago, by the end everyone has got closer to each other yet evidently maintains their own lives and independence. Aside from the niece and daughter (and dead relatives) the only other character who contributes significantly is the hunk-in-the-rough repairman: is it mere coincidence that once he starts working on the house, the main characters draw closer?
All said, the camera work is excellent; this film really "gets" Victoria, an enigmatic city on Vancouver Island loved for its beauty yet reviled for its boredom. As with the flashbacks, the score by Vincent Mai is repetitous at times and could have illustrated the flashbacks more effectively.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
somewhere between bleak and dreary, June 10, 2005
This review is from: Emile (DVD)
The plot: Emile, an elderly professor, travels from London to Victoria, British Columbia to receive an honorary degree. While there he stays with his niece Nadia, whom he has not seen since she was a little girl, in the ramshackle old family farm house which his brothers used to live in before their deaths long ago.
Nadia, who was left an orphan as a young child, has recently divorced, and has a 10-year old daughter, Maria, who is bratty and disturbed over the recent breakup of her parents.
The story unfolds in flashbacks, and in Emile's cross-dimensional conversations with his brothers Carl and Freddy. These forays into the unpleasant past are filled with deep regret and sins of omission, permeated with hatred and envy, and simple lack of caring.
Maria to Emile: "What's the hardest thing about getting old ?". Emile: "All those things you haven't managed to do".
Though the film tries to have a satisfactory resolution, it somehow doesn't really ring true, because the seeds of despair have been planted too deep.
Written, directed and photographed by Carl Bessai, the acting is good, with Ian McKellen heading the cast as Emile. Others are Deborah Cara Unger as Nadia, Theo Crane as Maria (and Nadia age 10), Chris Martin as Carl, Tygh Runyan as Freddy, and Ian Tracy as Tom the repairman.
A nice mellow score by Vincent Mai (who also plays on keyboards and trumpet), and lovely cinematography of the B.C. coastline alleviate some of the gloom.
Total running time is 95 minutes.
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