Oh, Canada
Richard Gere and Paul Schrader are reunited in an intimate study of a filmmaker dying of cancer.
Richard Gere and Kristine Froseth
Image courtesy of Blue Finch Film Releasing.
by MANSEL STIMPSON
The intriguing thing about Paul Schrader’s Oh, Canada is that it seems so very personal. There is even an element of that in how the film came about since it is an adaptation of a novel by Russell Banks (Foregone published in 2021) and Schrader and Banks became close and lasting friends after the filmmaker based his 1997 film Affliction on another novel by Banks. The novelist died in 2023, but he and Schrader had already talked about a film version of Foregone, a work centred on impending death as the central character looks back and muses on his life and shortcomings. With the novel being written so late on it could well be that the attitude of the central character reflected in part what Banks himself felt about life. With Schrader being only six years younger than Banks, it is equally plausible that the key figure, Leo Fife, can no less readily be regarded as representing Schrader’s own views and all the more so because Leo is portrayed as a film director.
In looking at past and present, Oh, Canada links Leo Fife and Paul Schrader in another way too since the role is played by Richard Gere reuniting here with the man who directed him in American Gigolo in 1980. The image of Gere in that film remains so potent that it underlines the changes wrought by time. Thankfully Gere himself being seventy-six is not as close to death as Leo Fife but he could not be more persuasive in his portrayal of this older man brought low by cancer. Leo’s situation is indeed such that he is aware that he will soon die and it is with that in mind that he agrees to give an interview which will be filmed by former students of his including Malcolm (Michael Imperioli) who will direct it.
Exactly what Leo's motivation is in agreeing to this interview remains something of an open question. The occasion turns out to be akin to a confessional as though at this stage in his life Leo wants to cut through the myths that have grown-up around him including the approval that he earned in many quarters by leaving America and coming to Canada in the 1960s to avoid the draft rather than face being sent to Vietnam. It is notable too that as a condition of giving the interview he insists that his wife, Emma (Uma Thurman), should be present. Emma is, in fact, his third wife and, when talking of his past in the course of this interview, he stresses the ill-judged first marriage he made in his youth and also talks about the son of his second marriage, Cornel (Zach Schaffer), whom he had chosen to ignore for thirty years. He acknowledges too the way in which he had treated that second wife, Alicia (Kristine Froseth), and his involvement at that time with Gloria (another role for Uma Thurman). Gloria was then married albeit unhappily to his painter friend Stanley Reinhart (Jake Weary). Leo also refers to other passing sexual encounters including one with a jazz pianist named Amanda (Megan Mackenzie) and we gather that there have been a substantial number of women in his life even if love may rarely have been involved.
The emphasis on Leo’s sexual involvements may be a way of admitting them to Emma although she appears to know more than he supposes in that respect. But it is also an open recognition of his failings to himself and he now admits that one of his major successes as a director, one crucial to his career, came about as a fluke. Similarly, although as a college dropout at the age of eighteen he had stated that he was going to fight for Castro in Cuba in an echo of those who went to Spain in 1937, we learn that in truth he never got there. What is said during the interview could even be seen as a virtual post-mortem on his life (we are told in voice-over at the outset that Leo died shortly after the interview). Nevertheless, there could be another way of looking at what is happening here: for all of Leo’s self-recriminations Emma claims that their marriage was a good one. This could be a protective gesture on her part and she may or may not be overstating the case when she claims that Leo's mind is wandering and that half of the things that he says are not true.
What is certain is that Richard Gere is impressive here: he has a strong presence and gives himself over fully to this study of old age. What he says is, of course, frequently illustrated and Jacob Elordi proves to be ideal casting as the young Leo Fife. The other players involved have rather less opportunities, however, and Uma Thurman's contributions are quite limited. One can question why she has a double role in Oh, Canada and why the same applies to Penelope Mitchell who appears as Leo's first wife and also as a production assistant named Sloan who is present at the interview and to whom despite his age Leo seems to be attracted. If this casting is just to stress that women with a certain look have always appealed to him it seems a rather elaborate way of doing so. Nor is that the only oddity that lacks any real justification. For no clear reason the shifts between time present and time past also involve changes in the film ratio used and the scenes switch back and forth inconsistently between colour and black and white. Furthermore, as though this were a variation on the situation of Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, there are scenes in which old Leo is seen looking on at his younger self. But even that is trumped when a past episode is acted out with Gere taking over from Elordi who is logically the actor who should be seen in it.
Later on, there is a suggestion that a new intimacy between Leo and Emma is only possible on account of both of them being involved in the filmed interview and indeed the end of the shoot does lead to a tender moment which they share. Nevertheless, Oh, Canada leads to questions more often than to answers but at 94 minutes it does not outstay its welcome. Ultimately though it is something of an oddity and a work which arguably says less than one expects of it, but there is always the sense that both Schrader and Gere are deeply committed. The offbeat nature of the piece even carries through to the last scene of all, a flashback. Given that Schrader is an admirer of Robert Bresson and someone who, despite turning away from his Catholic upbringing, is fascinated by things spiritual, this film’s concluding scene is intriguing and does feel apt. The whole film has been leading to Leo reaching the end of his life on earth but it is rounded off by a shot of the young Leo arriving in Canada to start what he sees as a new life.
Cast: Richard Gere, Uma Thuman, Jacob Elordi, Michael Imperioli, Victoria Hill, Caroline Dhavernas, Penelope Mitchell, Kristine Froseth, Megan Mackenzie, Zach Shaffer, Sean Mahan, Jake Weary.
Dir Paul Schrader, Pro Tiffany Boyle, Luisa Law, Meghan Manlon, Scott Lastaiti and David Gonzales, Screenplay Paul Schrader, from the novel Foregone by Russell Banks, Ph Andrew Wonder, Pro Des Deborah Jensen, Ed Benjamin Rodriguez Jr, Music Phosphorescent, Costumes Aubry Laufer.
Northern Lights Films/Vested Interest/Ottocento Films/Left Home Productions/Exemplary Film Corporation-Blue Finch Film Releasing.
95 mins. Canada/USA/Israel. 2024. US Rel: 6 December 2024. UK Rel: 12 January 2026. Cert. 15.
