Weekly round-up

Festival International du film pour Enfants
de Montréal is a tribute to the wee ones

PREDICTABLE BUT HEARTFELT: Moscow, Belgium

by MALCOLM FRASER and
CHRISTOPHER SYKES

Finn on the Fly
See Ben (Matthew Knight). See Finn. See Ben play with Finn. See Ben say Finn is best dog in world. See Ben lonely since he’s just arrived from Barcelona. See Finn understand and bark lovingly to cheer him up. See Ben and Finn frolic. See Finn wag tail while frolicking. See Ben go to school. See Ben get picked on by bully. See bully berate Ben using slanderous terms like “dog breath” and christen Ben “Bark-a-lona”. See Ben sad.

See Finn sneak into neighbour’s garage. See neighbour (Ana Gasteyer) is evil scientist. See Finn break test tube and eat contents. See Finn stagger home. See Finn transform into human (Ryan Belleville). See Finn trash house. See Finn tangle himself in curtains toga-style so as to hide his naughty bits. See Finn drink from toilet.

See Ben return home. See Finn happy to see Ben. See Ben confused. See Ben put it all together. See Ben hide Finn and clean up house. See evil scientist angry at mess. See evil neighbour put it all together. See evil scientist plot to steal Finn.

See Finn learn English. See Finn bring Ben closer to peers. See group become friends. See evil scientist try to steal Finn. See Finn fart in her face. See evil scientist eventually nab Finn. See friends put it all together. See friends sneak into lab to rescue Finn. See friends escape in hot dog on wheels. See Ben give Finn antidote. See Finn transformed back to canine. See friends triumph over their pesky adult adversary. Or better yet, don’t. (CS)

Moscow, Belgium
A bittersweet romantic comedy of sorts from Belgian first-time director Christophe Van Rompaey. Matty (Barbara Sarafian) is a 40-something postal clerk with an estranged, cheating husband (Johan Heldenbergh), a bratty teenage daugther (Anemone Valcke) and two younger kids, all of which has left her with a rather bitter world view. One afternoon, she gets into a minor traffic accident with trucker Johnny (Jurgen Delnaet). When he insists on fixing her car himself, she finds herself reluctantly giving in to his romantic advances, complicating her life even further.

Sarafian, who bears a resemblance in both looks and acting style to Frances McDormand, spends the whole movie looking frazzled, harried and perpetually put-upon; she’s world-weary and cynical but with a small flicker of hope somewhere in the darkness of her soul. Delnaet’s romantic proletarian is goofily lovable, but with a dark side that comes out over the course of the story.

The plot twists range from predictable to over the top, the structure is pretty pat and the dialogue is a little on the cute side—if this movie were made in Hollywood, it would probably be absolutely grating. Van Rompaey’s style, which recalls the social realism of Mike Leigh or Ken Loach, makes the film a lot more tolerable than it could have been. There’s a certain melancholy beauty in the portrayal of real people trying to find love in spite of all their baggage, and Sarafian’s heartfelt performance elevates the film above its flaws. (MF)

Magique!
With Quebec’s very own Cirque du Soleil single-handedly bringing about a worldwide revival in all things circus—and filling seats everywhere they set up shop—it’s a small wonder there hasn’t been more fictional cross-overs to capitalize on the resurrection.

Enter Magique!, the new musical comedy by French director Philippe Muyl (Le Papillon). Set in rural Quebec, it’s the story of a very lonely single mom (Marie Gillain) and her cordial son Tommy (Louis Dussol). Gillain struggles to pay the bills as a beekeeper and spends her free time on dating sites looking for that special somebody. Dussol is a very naive little lad who’s naive enough to think his father is an astronaut yet can figure out his mother is suffering from the blues.

Right on cue, a circus troupe happens into town. As the ringleader (Jean-Robert Bourdage) has messed up the necessary administrative papers, the troupe are dans la merde. Young Dussol is, of course, there to save the day and offers to host the group at his mom’s farm. Which paves the way for one of the performers (French celeb and singer of Star Académie theme song, Cali) to start a romance with Mom.

The saving grace is that we’re treated to some nifty feats by the performers practising their acts before the big show, but that’s not enough to cover up the awful songs and dialogue. Throughout Magique!, there’s a feeling that Muyl is attempting to recreate the magic of Tim Burton’s Big Fish. And trying to out-Burton Burton is always a bad idea. (CS)