Reflecting on Life and Death in Oh, Canada
Oh, Canada will open in theaters at a date TBD. This review is based on a screening at the Cannes Film Festival.
What is death to a man and filmmaker like Paul Schrader? Is it something to be feared? Bitterly laughed at one last time? Faced down with defiance? Sincerely reflected on before it’s too late?
In Oh, Canada, Schrader’s adaptation of the novel Foregone by his late friend Russell Banks, it’s all of the above and then some. Though the Taxi Driver screenwriter’s recent run of films has consisted of similarly troubled protagonists reckoning with their past while facing death, his latest operates in a different register entirely. Leonard Fife (Richard Gere) recounts his life in fragments for a film-within-the-film, resulting in a messy, melancholic, and meandering work that explores new thematic territory.
The ailing Leonard has consented to place himself in front of the camera for one final film, with Gere expressing the character’s physical and mental unraveling in frequent coughs and mutters. His only comfort seems to be his wife Emma, played by Uma Thurman. Leonard needs to unburden himself, jumping back to disjointed moments in his life as he navigates his deteriorating health.
Planting one foot in the grave and another in yesterday, Oh, Canada delves into what comes to light when death is near. Schrader grapples with weighty themes, constructing scenes that can be disorienting. The film’s disorienting tone is underscored by a series of songs by Phosphorescent, with Leonard’s observations often proving unsettling.
Schrader sees no easily found dignity in death, presenting a narrative where truth and lies blur together. As Leonard attempts to find salvation by revisiting his past, the line between reality and fiction becomes increasingly blurred. What is true and what isn’t is not always simple to determine, reflecting the complex nature of memory and reflection.
Oh, Canada invites viewers to contemplate their own journey towards the inevitable barrier between life and death. Schrader taps into the universal desire for reflection, highlighting the common thread that ties humanity together. While we may not have final say in the narrative of our lives, we all strive to make sense of our existence before the final curtain falls.