Les invasions barbares

I read a lot of comments about the performance of the son in the movie, it's even more impressive when you know that the guy who played the son (Stephane Rousseau) is a stand up comic, whose only previous experience as an actor was in very bad, low budget comedy (Les dangereux).

I also read a lot of comments, from people from other countries, wondering if the Canadian health care is that bad? Well I'm from Quebec and if I had seen this movie last year I would have thought that it was a bit exaggerated but I saw it last night, after I had to go to the emergency last June for heart problems and when I saw the scenes in the hospital's corridor, I just relived what I experienced back then. I spent 4 days parked in a corridor, trying to sleep with lights on 24 hours a day, people working, circulating and nurses or doctors examining me in front of everybody. Believe me it's that bad!!

By the way it's a great movie, subtitles doesn't do it justice.

This is a smart, charming and intelligent film about dealing with loss, love and ageing. On several deeper layers, the characters meditate on the socialist health system in Canada, mortality, their explorations of sexual relationships and the freedom and restraints that come with maturity.

This film effortlessly presents us with characters struggling to live in a system which aims to meet our personal needs but exists to serve capitalist benefits. It demonstrates the uncertainty of life circumstances and mortality. The son's transformation from corporate power-driven lifestyle into a battle against preserving his father's memory and dignity are heartfelt captured are genuine and sincere. The role of the faithful and courageous nurse is compassionately portrayed while indicting the system in which the patients struggle to maintain power of their lives. As a nurse myself, I found it tremendously affecting and a poem to the ideals impart to our patients who have been let down in some way either by the system or in their own personal relationships.

Superbly written, one may accuse the film of being to preachy or pretentiously highbrow for these complex characters. But I actually found it terribly poetic and concise, ranging the vast life experiences of the characters and their skepticism and maturity. At times, the dialogue flows like poetry, holding no preconceptions or vanities about these people, but displaying their desperation at the state of a socialist society their has providing them with an abundance of great literary wealth but failing to meet their basic human needs.

Sophisticated, smart, thought-provoking, tender, and mature, films like this are extremely seldom nowadays. Audience can only too shockingly relate with such vividness and irony to the themes; and we are never played for fools, confronting these issues as if it were a close friend divulging personal secrets over a coffee. Films like this truly show us that life is not for granted and serve to remind us what human qualities we deserve from each other and expect from ourselves.

A life of wine, women, and, no, not song, but left-wing causes, has left Remy (Remy Girard) pretty much alone and dying from cancer.

Writer/Director Denys Arcand gives us a film that dispels the myth that we will all die a happy death.

Remy's son Sebastien (Stephane Rousseau) lives in London and doesn't have anything to do with his father, who rejects him because of his capitalist ways, but he comes in and gets things done for his father. The Canadian hospital and the unions are not presented in a good light. Sebastian has to grease palms with money everywhere he turns. He also calls his father's old friends and associates to get them to visit. It really gets funny when he naively goes to the police to find a source for heroin as the morphine is no longer working to alleviate his father's pain.

It is not only the Canadian health care system that is pilloried, but the Catholic Church, and the imperialism of many nations. It is truly a thinking person's film. There are so many great lines throughout and some great thoughts on life and death.

While Nathalie (Marie-Josée Croze) helped him ease into death, his friends relieved their youth around him.

He lived his life on his own terms, and he went out that way.

I want more Denys Arcand.

I rented this movie last weekend. Not having heard anything about it, I was prepared for a middling effort and some mild entertainment.

I have to say that I was happily surprised by the quality of this film. It is a very moving piece. It touched upon so many facets of every day life - love, death, sex, fidelity, family, ambition, religion, loyalty, forgiveness, and redemption. It was handled in an understated way that allows the audience to think about the themes introduced without hitting them over the head with a message. The cast was really terrific, too. I would definitely recommend this for an indie-foreign film aficionado.

I come from Quebec and just wanted to clarify some things.

• I cannot believe some people can give a rating below 5 for this movie. Were you looking for a Vin Diesel movie? This is a movie about real life, about human relationships. Its purpose is not entertainment, but reflexion. This is when a movie is considered art.

• Quebecers are not French. I'm speaking for myself but my ancestor came here in Quebec in the 17th century from France. We do speak french, though (more than 7 million of us). Are Americans British?

• The Chinese "woman" named before the movie is Arcand's adopted daughter.

• Yes the health care is that bad here. But then again where is it perfect? The population is growing old, hospitals are overcrowded, our government spends most of our tax money for it and its still not enough. But at least we don't have to pay for health care. I'm happy to pay taxes that help elders and sick people get treated.

I didn't think this is a masterpiece, but it's the kind of movie that stays in your mind for a couple of days and makes you think about where we were 40 years ago, where we are now and where we are going in the future. This is certainly one of Arcand's best movies with Jesus of Montreal and Le declin... He is an actor director and it shows. He deserved that Oscar if not for this movie for one of those 3 movies.