Oh, Canada

The substantial motif of opening up and purging hidden truths about oneself, publicly on camera and in the presence of one’s surprised wife. With sincere self-reflexive monologues from the character played by Richard Gere, who is great as usual and is supported by the precise Uma Thurman. The film is given a distinctive theatrical patina by the incredibly pleasant music (songs) and the attractive retro visual aspect in the flashbacks. However, its ending is unsatisfying. The theme with revealing the main character’s past with the relativity of what is and isn’t true of that past had greater potential. [Cannes FF] (2024-05-21)

Oh, Canada starts off very promisingly, with our last interview with Leonard Fife (Richard Gere), a famous documentary filmmaker who fled to Canada to avoid the Vietnam War. It's very important for him to have his wife present for the interview because he wants to share what he hasn't shared yet. And so he begins to tell his life story. What we gradually learn about him is actually not entirely flattering, and his wife doesn't like the new revelations either, so he blames it all on his medical condition and the side effects of his medication. What's true, what's fabricated, what's distorted, what does Fife himself remember differently than it really was? It's all done quite engagingly, with a great soundtrack and great actors, but gradually the pace somehow slows down, the ideas become more and more obscure, the questions mount, and suddenly it all fizzles out into a bland, unfinished ending... and I don't know what the poet was trying to say. [Festival de Cannes 2024] (2024-05-24)