Polytechnique

From the opening scene of students busy doing their copying in front of an array of copying machines, and the sudden disruption caused by a burst of gun fire, Polytechnique grabs the viewers by the collar and placed them right in the middle of this horrific event that took place in Montreal in 1989.

The film claimed to be a fictionalized account of the massacre, in which 14 women were killed and many others were wounded, and I don't know to what extent it adheres to facts. But that does not matter. As far as story telling goes Denis Villeneuves did it with skill and without fanfare. B/W images, and a restraint use of dialogue and music add to the mood of this film, which is not an uplifting experience by its very nature. Acting was good by the several male and female leads. Editing was excellent.

Overall, I look at this films as Canadian cinema at its best - despite the depressing nature of the subject matter.

This film, shot mostly handheld with a black and white color grade, is a realistic recreation of a real life nightmare scenario that happened not too long ago in modern history. Focusing on a small group of fictional recreations of real life people, this film truly shows the dangers of untreated pyschological disorders, including depression, and the dangers of anti social idealogy in the hands of an armed person. It is a well done film with excellent acting from the cast, and is an anxiety inducing and truly negative experience, but one worth watching, to both remember the horror of the past, and to realize that such events still happen far too frequently in the present.

I've read many comments by people stating that this film is bias because it only reflects the point of view of the victims who were mainly female and that is just giving support to the feminist movement but that is not the case.

This film isn't about the shooter, it isn't about the families...it's about the victims/survivors of this horrific ordeal. It does not focus on the background of the killer, it does not explain in great detail why he committed this terrible act of violence... it depicts what the victims/survivors went through.

Some people tend to feel empathic for the shooter, commenting on the fact that he felt prosecuted for his gender and that he felt threatened and hatred for females who in his own opinion were taking jobs away from males who deserved them... Kind of like the two shooters from Columbine who to some people became a icon for anti-bullying, thinking that the only reason they committed these crimes was because they were prosecuted by their peers and the community. It doesn't change the fact that both the Columbine shooters and Marc Lepine took innocent lives and then so cowardly take their own.

Some people liken this movie to "Elephant" and I agree but it also reminds me of "April Showers" since both movies did not focus on the killer but on the people who suffered through the event.

There is a beauty that pervades this movie, despite its awful subject matter, and perhaps that and the constantly falling snow, help imbue this with a sadness all the more profound. I was confused as to why there was no resistance or assistance and whether it was a hair colour change at the end that added to my confusion but none of this affected my feeling of reverence towards the film itself or its director. I'm not sure if I had seen this upon release I would have imagined Denis Villeneuve would be equipped to go on to make a successful sequel to Blade Runner a remake Dune or to tackle Cleopatra but the talent is certainly evident, even in this quiet, subdued, calm and effective account of a mass slaughter.

It's heartbreaking that this actually happend. The characters, for the film, were fictionalised, but Polytechnique shows a glimpse of what those innocent young people would have gone through. And it's truly saddening.

Handled as delicately as possible as the subject matter dictates, Denis Villeneuve's film is a haunting, and a deeply moving account, of an event in close history, that should never have taken place.