From: iain
Message:
'The Barbarian Invasions' is a French/Canadian film, based in Montreal.
It focuses on a life-loving university lecturer who has been diagnosed
with cancer. His ex-wife contacts his oil/stock-trading millionaire son
and asks him to visit, the son is reluctant as they have been estranged
for quite some time. The son agrees to visit as his mother cannot get
hold of his sister, who works delivering boats around the world. The son
arrives and after a brief argument is soon best friends with his dying
father, and attending to his every need - securing him his own floor in
a neglected hospital, and also his own heroin supply to counter the pain
(it's 800% more effective than Morphine we're told). The son then
manages to gather his father's friends and past mistresses together, who
all get on like a house on fire. They all proceed to organise the
lecturer's last day on terra firma.
It's suffered from some mixed reviews, and it's not hard to see why. The
film does characterisation and dialogue extremely well and extremely
intelligently. The dialogue is razor-sharp, especially the father's
conversations with his nurse and the group conversations during the
gathering of his friends. Even peripheral characters feel fleshed out,
my favourite being the junkie daughter of one of the father's
mistresses, who procures the heroin used to abate the father's pain.
It's not without it's faults however. On one level you find yourself
empathising with the father and sympathising with the son, then on
another cursing the father's infidelity and the son's capitalist
wrong-doings. The barbarian invasions of the title relate to the
father's preoccupation with bloody conflicts through history (he appears
to be a professor of History). An out-of-place news report on 7/11
stipulates that the deaths from that tragedy are inconsequential when
compared to the 20th centuries other conflicts, but what is of great
note is the fact that the terrorists struck at the heart of the empire.
Personally I don't think this comment was needed as I think anyone who
has given any thought to the matter has realised the this was the
perpetrators major intent. You are no longer safe anywhere.
Despite these issues, speaking hand-on-heart, I loved the film. It is
very moving, very poignant, and is a stirring reminder that we're all
here for a limited amount of time, and we should all make the most use
of it. There are laugh-out-loud moments, and there are
have-a-quiet-sob-into-your hanky moments. It's a film that's in the
strange position of being both utterly depressing and wonderfully
uplifting. The film's heart is in the right place, and it definitely
get's you thinking so it get's full marks from me. Sometimes we all need
a little reminder of the important things in life.
(for a fully hyper-linked copy of this reviews see www.killyourtv.co.uk)
iain
