Roundabout romance

>> Imitation is a beautiful but
meandering Montreal story

by JEFFREY MALECKI

How to begin? This question presumably arises for every director, and while the answers may vary, they generally fall along the spectrum from “Once upon a time...” to the more disorienting option of inserting the viewer into the middle of the plot. Though far from experimental, Montreal filmmaker Federico Hidalgo’s Imitation veers towards the more interesting latter choice, but ultimately the viewer plays catch-up for the duration of the film with no real reward.

The movie begins in Montreal with Teresa, played with understated sultriness by Vanessa Bauche (Amores Perros), meeting grocery boy Fenton (Jesse Aaron Dwyre) as she inspects a quart of strawberries. The two instantly and inexplicably become embroiled in a search for her missing former lover (Conrad Pla), whom she knows from her time in Mexico, and whose photograph she glowers and gazes at throughout. They follow a roundabout trail through the not-so-seedy underclass of the city, from markets and restos to factories, piecing together his life and becoming closer in the process.

Dwyre is exasperatingly inconsistent as the love-sick Fenton, alternating between moments of sincere slackerism—at one point he’s loafing, drawing the water tower at St-Laurent and Van Horne—and overenthusiastic interest in Bauche’s tale. Though none of the performances are exceptionally gripping, Dwyre especially seems a little too confused and naïve to make his friendship with Bauche believable.

To Hidalgo’s credit, the film is nicely paced, with many dialogue-free moments interspersed throughout. As well, Montreal is subtly and beautifully rendered, very much its own character with its evocative streetscapes and vistas. The film refreshingly ignores the corrupt cops, strip clubs and other typical cinematic markers of our city (which could have easily fit into the story). Although occasionally gimmicky, dialogue is frequently laid atop shots of the surrounding scene—rain-splattered windows, market produce—to great effect, as though the camera were as voyeuristic and distracted (or at times bored) as the viewer.

Ultimately, while the randomness of the opening and meandering plot highlight the circuitous nature of desire’s trajectories, the intrigue of the story never manages to fully evolve, and Montreal as a city can only go so far to incite deeper interest in the characters.

Imitation opens this
Friday, Jan. 25

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