Away From Her, Rescue Dawn

June 15

The festival is in full gear now and it was time to serve up some heavy stuff. Namely films about dementia and POWs.

There are many things you can say about Sarah Polley. Lightweight is not one of them. Even when playing a drug-dealing teenager in Doug Liman's crime-comedy 'Go', Polley always manages to add some serious gravitas to her screen characters. Isn't it time blondehood proclaimed her a national icon?

In 'Away From Her' Polley finds herself behind the lens, directing her debut feature based on a Alice Munro's short story. A debut most unexpected considering the subject matter and Polley's youth (she's all of 27). Fiona (Julie Christie) and Grant (Gordon Pinset) have been married for many years. They have no children and seem to only need each other. But when Fiona shows rapidly developing signs of Alzheimer disease, their secluded Utopian world begins to collapse. She insists on moving to the nearby clinic for the elderly, claiming that she doesn't want to be a burden on Grant. Reluctantly he agrees, but after a month at the clinic, Fiona seems not to recognize her husband and has developed a close relationship with a fellow patient - Albury. Confused and upset Grant wonders if this latest twist in their relationship is not just due to illness but Fiona's way of taking revenge for past hurts and testing their love.

And so it develops into a magnificent game of psychological enquiry on the nature of human connection, fidelity and responsibility. What is remarkable about Polley's direction is the understanding and maturity she brings to her treatment of this painful situation. She could've gone for easy shots, milking the drama dry but instead chooses to underscore her film with some exceptionally written dialogue that sparkles with wit and humour. This allows the audience to bypass our instinctive reactions to the tragedy of Fiona's condition and contemplate about the essence of Grant's attachment to her. Indeed, when a relationship is stripped of that most essential component - memory - what is left to hold it together? It's a difficult proposition and we're not given straight answers either. That's why I think the film succeeds; it leaves space for our own personal questioning, a kind of self-interrogation when you go back home and face your close ones.

What 'Away From Her' also emphasises is our natural need for connection, whatever the situation. When Grant meets Albury's wife, they connect not only because of their shared problem, but because their lives are left in a vacuum that needs to be filled. It's the kind of approach that is stunning both for its simplicity and ambiguity. It's not about surfaces, sex, financial need or even intellect, its much more primal and difficult to pinpoint.

The director makes her cast act as if they're in an Ozu film. The absolutely magnificent Julie Christie - who is herself suffering from Alzhemeir's - gives a sublimely delicate performance that is full of mystery and incredible tonal range. Everyone else is on par; it's a consistent ensemble piece that is never out of sync. Polley's use of the screen is also worth noting. She often uses backlighting to surround her actors with a beautiful glow that radiates warmth and also something otherworldly. There are many quiet moments where a whole sea of information is conveyed by a single glance, a wistful 'Oh' or an innocuous gesture. It's no wonder Atom Egoyan has produced the film - his benevolent influence is everywhere.

While the film does wonderfully what it aims to do it must be said that is a long way from say Bergman's 'Cries and Whispers' or Atom Egoyan's 'The Sweet Hereafter'. I think that by choosing to treat the situation with a relatively light touch and deliberately overlooking the ugliness and pain caused by dementia, the director has played rather safe. This is not a harrowing experience by any means and I felt that we as an audience are left too easily off the hook. You shed a tear or two and feel happy sad but you don't wonder in the end who's left cleaning after Fiona's shit her pants. In my book, that's a cop-out, yet I can't but like this film because it truly is rewarding on so many other fronts.

And now for cinema's lone wolf's - Werner Herzog's - new film, 'Rescue Dawn' - starring Mr. Batman himself, Christian Bale. This is how imagine the initial meeting between Herzog and Bale went.

Herzog: So you've seen the documentary right? Little Dieter...

Bale: ... needs to fly. Yes of course I've seen it. I know all about the guy.

Herzog: So you know that you'll be in some tough situations. We want to shoot the film in

location in the jungle, no fucking studios.

Bale: I'm no Hollywood pansy, I can take it.

Herzog: But you know... I want to be really real. I want you to fly the plane and crash dive.

Bale (visibly excited): Bring it on!

Herzog: You'll have to loose a lot of weight throughout the filming.

Bale: Plenty of experience in that department.

Herzog: No stuntmen...

Bale (punching the air): Yeah baby!

Herzog: And I want the audience to really feel its real. There's this maggot eating scene, real
maggots....

Bale (jumping off his chair): Fuck yeah!

Herzog: And everyone's gonna fart in your face when you're chained up to about five POWs.

Bale: I'll do the movie for like 20 bucks!

Herzog: 10 bucks and you'll have to bite and eat a live snake coz you know... we want it be really real.

Bale... (has an orgasm).

Well... that is pretty much what happens in the film. I don't mean to denigrate Herzog's achievement with this film. It's frighteningly REAL and extremely engaging. But in telling this TRUE story of the only American POW to have escaped from the jungle during the Vietnam war, Herzog tramples the same ground he's travelled through so often in 'Aguire', 'Fitzcaraldo', 'Kobra Verde', 'White Diamond' and his own documentary on the same subject - 'Little Dieter Needs to Fly'. Herzog goes back to the jungle... only to find that he has nothing new to say. Well, what more can be said about survival instinct, ambition and human ego that he hasn't explored already? Here, the director even manages to make a film about the Vietnam War that has absolutely nothing to do with the Vietnam War. It could've just easily have taken place in any other war - provided there's a jungle. Yes I know that's not what the film wants to be... we're not meant to politicize the situation. The underlying philosophy is actually very black and white. Dieter has to do everything humanly possible to escape. No questions about right and wrong and why the Americans are bombing innocent villagers. It doesn't matter, this guy just wants to survive. And there is no denying that Herzog captures this harrowing struggle beautifully. We're 100% with him and his actor on this journey.

But my problems is that we're at it again and we know where it's going, the pay-off is astonishingly jingoistic (it'd make a perfect propaganda piece for American troops in Iraq) and what's worse, there are no surprises along the way! Add to it the irritating mugging of Christian Bale (in contrast to the delightful Steve Zahn) who mistakes mannerism for acting and you get a strangely irrelevant one-act film from a master-filmmaker. Even accusations of 'mainstream' aspirations seem beside the point. I just hope that this is a way for Herzog to earn enough funds for a five hour film set on the Everest and featuring a tribe of telepathic dwarfs.

And I'm sorry... but I'm seriously worried about Bale. Will someone please tell him that Oscar is simply a gold-plated tin statue and NOT the Holy Grail?