The term ‘wunderkind’ so aptly describes Xavier Dolan that it feels as though it could have been coined for the young Québécois actor turned filmmaker, who has been enjoying prodigious success since focusing his efforts behind the camera. At the age of 23, Dolan currently has three acclaimed features to his name, all of which have screened at the Cannes Film Festival. Awards have followed for each, including his latest offering – 2012 Queer Palm winner, Laurence Anyways.
In a departure from his debut, I Killed My Mother and follow-up, Heartbeats, Dolan relinquishes leading man duties as he crafts a decade-long love story. Similarly, he retreats from contemporary times to immerse his narrative in the nostalgia of the 1980s and 1990s, complete with a pulsating synth-pop soundtrack and an eclectic wardrobe.
The aberration from his previous modus operandi is telling, as deviating from the norm is Laurence Anyways’ primary concern. Eponymous Montreal teacher and writer Laurence Alia (Melvil Poupand, Mysteries of Lisbon) is no longer able to conform to convention; in news that shocks his girlfriend Fred (Suzanne Clément, Canadian TV’s Les hauts et les bas de Sophie Paquin), he announces that he wants to live the rest of his days as a woman. Fred proves ill-prepared for Laurence’s revelation, yet so fated is their romance that it sustains as life takes them in different directions.
Over the course of two and a half hours, Laurence Anyways charts the impact of Laurence’s compulsion to be true to herself. Though the pursuit of her grand love for Fred – and Fred’s attempts to reconcile Laurence’s changes with her own expectations – drives the narrative, so too do the social ramifications of living a transgendered lifestyle, from the reaction of Laurence’s employer, to the violence awaiting her newly-attired aesthetic, to the harsh practicalities enunciated by her concerned mother (Nathalie Baye, Beautiful Lies).
The story is often simplistic and themes are overtly stated, but both are strikingly handled, visually. Subtly echoing Pedro Almodóvar’s oeuvre, Dolan combines the subjective and the surreal in an expressionistic fashion, employing sumptuously-framed visuals to convey the film’s emotional undercurrent. Evident hyper-realism heightens the melodrama, to moving and meaningful effect. Sprawling and self-indulgent sequences may hamper the finished product; however the resulting feature is both dynamic and delicate.
Amidst all of Dolan’s vibrant stylistic flourishes, his central duo steals the show in a stellar display of casting. The contrasting efforts of the gentle Poupad and energetic Clément combine to paint an arresting, absorbing portrait of love at any cost. Compensating for the film’s misconstrued meanderings into contemplative territory, together they compel with their honesty and complexity. The feature, too, achieves the same feat, with ambition and audacity surpassing its imperfections.
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
Laurence Anyways
Director: Xavier Dolan
Canada/France, 2012, 156 min
In limited release from 14 January
Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Melbourne
(Additional screenings to be announced)
Rated MA
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