On the look out for a GOOD romantic film, just as funny as it is sweet? Laurence is your woman.
The script Xavier Dolan has written for Laurence Anyways matches the stylistic genius he demonstrates as director of this unforgettable film. But oddly, he bookends it with some really trite narrative devices that undermine his epic take on enduring love.
In between these mainstream points, we meet two lateral thinkers who take great pleasure in making ridiculous lists and analysing the world they live. Bold film director Frederique and her school teacher boyfriend Laurence are completely unafraid to challenge everything but brilliantly, they never take things too seriously. They find themselves wrapped up in a life surrounded by academics and educators but find a way to make it bearable; they challenge their parents but stay close to them, they deal with loneliness and confusion but make each other laugh their way through it. So when Laurence tells Fred he want to transition from male to female, she figures they can make it work.
But in her award-deserving performance, Suzanne Clement as Fred is faced with a series of hurdles that she doesn't know how to handle and the most overpowering one is figuring out what she wants. She and Laurence come together and drift apart, they push themselves into a couple and tear themselves away from each other all the while strutting their hardened attitudes around town. They are mesmerising and their conversations so pained and intelligent that they make this almost three-hour long epic seem half as long.
Dolan's heady camera work is equally unafraid. It makes a feature of the '90s, the decade of the generation, according to Fred, who are ready for this conversation. Colours are inescapably vivid, the music is overpowering and the supporting characters provide additional bite. So why then does Dolan feel the need to fall back on the idea of Laurence making his literary dreams come true to mainstream celebration?
Occasionally we hear the limp discussion between a now successful Laurence, like a literary Grayson Perry, talk to a interviewer about her life story including her take on Fred. And that's before a flash back to the day the two met and a wholly unnecessary explanation of the title. Dolan has already given us everything we need to understand his two formidable central characters so spelling things out for us is an inexplicably simplistic ending to an otherwise superb film.
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