C.R.A.Z.Y. - Verrücktes Leben

Well, I'm not very good expresing myself in English. I would prefer to write it in Spanish or Basque, but I'll try to do as well as I can.

I've just seen this film and I think that is marvellous. I used to love french films, but the Franco-Canadian films are very great too (see if you can Leolo).

The director and the play writer has madden a fantastic work converging reality and fantasy at once. I mean, sometimes in the film we can see fantastic elemments but paradoxically these elemments don't take away eloquence and realism to the film.

The director also has used the comedy to tell us the story, and that's really thankful for the audience. We make fun as the same time we become sad. Make a good comedy is more difficult than producing a tear-jerked drama.

Please, just go to your closest cinema (theatre) and see it. If you ca in Original version with subtitles ( I haven't got that luck, the 99% of the films in Spain are dubbed. I've to wait for the DVD to enjoy the film in french)

PS. I'm sorry because of my English.

CRAZY was an exceptionally powerful and emotional film experience for me. This is an example of just how sublime the medium can be when everything comes together, cast, director, music. This film deserves to be graced with a string of awards and accolades.

I saw it in France with my late teens son, and we were both in tears at the end. I could not recommend more highly. I'd be interested in knowing whether it works in the same way for females, as for us it was a real father and son bonding experience. At times it felt like experiencing an intense poignant flashback experience of the epiphanies and rites of passage of one's own youth, and how we relate to our parents and siblings. A thoroughly uplifting experience.

(I wish I wrote this in french because I will not be able to mean all in English) This movie is simple but accurate. Sometimes the subject don't need to be complicated, the emotions are enough. The life of a family searching for happiness but who sometimes find misfortune in the path. The characters are all representative of many generations. Nostalgia will get most of people. The actors are all great especially Michel Côté, Marc-André Grondin et Pierre-Luc Brilliant. Video and audio editing come from genius. The music is O_O (read the Trivia and you'll understand). I have nothing more to say than this movie will give you what you awaited for. You have to see it ... again. Félicitations Jean-Marc !!!

It is rare for a Canadian film - as opposed to an American film shot in Canada which is commonplace - to have a worldwide distribution, but even rarer for us to see a French Canadian move, but this one is a delight. Set in the Quebec of the 60s and 70s, it is the story - amusing, quirky, poignant, sad - of Zac Beaulieu (the Z of the title) born on one Christmas Day as one of five very different brothers (the initial letters of the names of the others spell out C.R.A.Z.Y. and the song with this title features on the soundtrack).

Zac's doubtful sexuality is a problem for him, his girlfriend and his Catholic parents, especially the macho but loving father played by Michel Côté and the resolution of this situation is not without confusion and pain. The film is a triumph for Jean-Marc Vallée, who directed the film and co-wrote it, and he is well served by a sensitive and nuanced performance from Marc-André Grondin as Zac.

As it has been said by others, this by all standards, not just as far French Canadian movies go, is a good movie. As somebody who grew up in Québec City I really appreciated how this movie really shows an intimate portrait of Quebec culture with all of its contradictions and beauty.

It showed how being an island of French in a sea of English does have an effect but that there is a definite Québecois culture which definitely bleeds into and mixes in with pop culture. For example the main character a young boy who is deeply conflicted with his sexuality is told he has the ability to heal people just by thinking of them if they are hurt...something which is uniquely Quebecois "old wives tale" The movie spans 2 decades or so, and the recreation of those decades from the house decor, to the music is really well done. The sound track shows in equal weights great Quebec classics along side such rock legends of the time of Pink Floyd and David Bowie.

The movie is great not because of a complicated twisty plot but rather really well acted and created characters. A very touching portrait of family life that can be appreciated not by just someone from that culture but supersedes cultural boundaries.