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>> Nitro is a standard-issue action flick
with a Quebec twist

by JEFFREY MALECKI

There’s a particular facet of Quebec’s mythology that holds that Quebecers, in contrast to other Canadians, don’t need to follow the rules. We’ve spun a narrative that we exist above the law. Last summer’s Bon Cop, Bad Cop made this explicit (and amusing) with its two police stereotypes. In Quebec’s big summer film Nitro, we get another boilerplate treatment of the reckless male maverick, though with some minor variations.

It’s the story of Max (Guillaume Lemay-Thivierge), who must save his dying girlfriend because of a promise made to their son. She needs a heart transplant, so instead of waiting the requisite 10 months, Max attempts to circumvent the law and the medical system to acquire the organ. He revisits his dark past as a drag racer and plunges into the world of organized crime.

There is little new in this genre film, though director Alain Desrochers has done a good job of not succumbing to all conventions. The film does, however, make ample use of banal flashback sequences, which establish a simplistic dichotomy between past and present, between the bad old self (Max) and the new and improved “Julien,” his new identity. Of course, Lemay-Thivierge’s bad boy type has not yet been fully extended across the gender divide, and while female lead Morgane (competently played by Lucie Laurier) is an empowered car racer, she remains just a one-dimensional, sexualized foil to the male lead.

The action scenes themselves are generally standard-issue, though sometimes quite thrilling, with chases wending through familiar Montreal neighbourhoods and past known landmarks. However, the filler unfortunately always verges towards the grossly sentimental, and you’ll notice that the film breaks no new emotional ground whatsoever.

Quebec is written all over this Hollywood-style film, but it is a changing, modernized Quebec—the flashback scenes take place in that classic location, the strip club, whereas the new scenes occur at an upscale lounge owned by generic criminals. Ultimately, however, Nitro is a moderately respectable action flick that swerves ever so slightly from the endlessly worn road.

Nitro opens this Friday, June 29

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