From the Vancouver International Film Festival:
Larry Coyle (Nicolas Wright) is a man with a plan. A Vancouver city councillor, he’s working hand in glove with developer-tycoon Bob Sterling (Gerard Plunkett) to facilitate a new casino project. The proposed site is an environmental hazard, but for Larry that’s a detail that can be swept under the rug. He’s a politician willing to compromise for the sake of the bigger picture—a familiar type, of course.
Mark Sawers’s satire of political corruption comes with an extra charge of craziness, as we discover in the second scene: reclining in a motel room after some extramarital recreation, Larry looks in the mirror and sees a cameraman taping him. How did this guy get in the room? Turns out he’s everywhere: in Larry’s office as he crafts his shady deals, in his kitchen as he slyly manipulates his family and, ultimately, in his psychiatrist’s office as he seeks help for his mysterious plight.
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This film is a fable of the avenging conscience; its cleverness lies in its rendering of this classic trope in terms of the basics of moviemaking. The director positions himself as the cameraman, and poor Larry comes to believe that his life is a fictional contrivance—the very movie we’re watching. An arrogant optimist to the end, he thinks he can manipulate the movie; the fun lies in watching him being proven wrong. (VIFF 2012)
Directed by: Mark Sawers Cast: Nicolas Wright, Lara Gilchrist, Gerard Plunkett, Hilary Jardine, C Ernest Harth (Can, 2012, 91 min.)
Related Links: Official Website | Buy Tickets
Screening Information:
Friday, January 18, 6:45pm
Sunday, January 20, 6:10pm
Monday, January 21, 6:30pm
Wednesday, January 23, 6:30pm
Thursday, January 24, 6:30pm
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Corruption on Council – clearly this must be fiction!
I’m only being half facetious. There’s no culture of corruption in Vancouver in the way, say, that it had been institutionalized in Montreal. In the 15 years I was on council, I never saw anything overt and rarely suggested. Indeed, I was only approached once by someone who implied that there might be a retainer involved for unspecified services.
But corruption is a highly interpretive word, and some think the whole system is inherently corrupt because of the way elections are funded. And then there’s moral corruption – which looks to be the case in this movie.
The danger, I think, is the acceptance of jaded and lazy cynicism that allows people to be broadly dismissive of all politicians, politics as a respected and necessary discipline, and then government generally. It’s dangerous because it takes the onus off both the elected and electors to exercise the moral constraints and expectations that keep the system and its participants honest.
But stories about corrupt politicians – well, they’re a genre as old (maybe older) than the Bible, and can be as equally instructive.
