Woe to be French-Canadian. Truly neither here nor there. Not really French, not really American, one can only hope to gain cultural gravitas by emigrating elsewhere. How else to explain this latest dismal offering from Denys Arcand, persistent Quebecois that he is.
Where have we seen this film before? Where have we seen a dying man (garrulous, passionate, raunchy), surrounded by family (straight-laced son, estranged wife), mistresses (blonde, brunette, redhead), seafaring daughter (performing a heart-rending soliloquy on the high-seas). Well, maybe not that last one.
And the friends are there too. In fact, I understand these are the same people who appeared in Arcand's "The Decline and Fall of Western Civilization." After seeing "The Barbarian Invasions" I can safely say I have no desire to see these people in the earlier film.
What incredibly banal dialogue puffed up to appear universal and profound! What warmed-over existentialism, leaden wit and second-rate acting!
Cliché upon cliché is heaped on the screen, whether it's the circumstances of the plot, the characterizations, the dialogue, or the treacly resolve where son and father are reconciled. This movie has it all: the humanity of Renoir, the fatality of Sartre, and the credibility of Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Where have we seen this film before? Where have we seen a dying man (garrulous, passionate, raunchy), surrounded by family (straight-laced son, estranged wife), mistresses (blonde, brunette, redhead), seafaring daughter (performing a heart-rending soliloquy on the high-seas). Well, maybe not that last one.
And the friends are there too. In fact, I understand these are the same people who appeared in Arcand's "The Decline and Fall of Western Civilization." After seeing "The Barbarian Invasions" I can safely say I have no desire to see these people in the earlier film.
What incredibly banal dialogue puffed up to appear universal and profound! What warmed-over existentialism, leaden wit and second-rate acting!
Cliché upon cliché is heaped on the screen, whether it's the circumstances of the plot, the characterizations, the dialogue, or the treacly resolve where son and father are reconciled. This movie has it all: the humanity of Renoir, the fatality of Sartre, and the credibility of Andrew Lloyd Webber.