The Republic of Love

If the characters had been able to get over themselves, the viewer would have been able to breathe easier. The long looks – forget your lines? The oh-so-serious weighing of feelings, especially, in Fay – grow up, kid. I think it's called analysis paralysis. Her brother had her number. Where does all that probative introspection get her? It's good she rallied around her mother when needed, but was it really necessary to spin into withdrawal? Lash out at Tom when he calls? She's a baby. Someone really should have taken Tom's temperature. I think he was sick or was he just sleep walking? Just kind of drifts into things, including marriage. Use the brain. Get a pulse. Now, put the two together. The kinky Indian music was too strange. Maybe the mermaid idea was considered an artsy touch as well. These are supposed to be fairly adult people who hold down real jobs. Their courtship and relating revolve mainly around the initial newness of meeting and cohabiting. Pretty flimsy deal they got going here. Not surprising that it doesn't weather the first ill wind that blows its way. I guess their parents failed them along the way, but what else is new? You are supposed to acquire some life skills beyond that on your own. You're grown up now (40ish, in his case), so why can't you handle anything? Where's the strength for someone else? Consumed on little me, actually. Good luck on the marriage ("I'm so happy!"). Unfortunately, it takes a lot more than that. Oh, please finally get with it, or just go back home and settle into sucking your thumb in earnest.

This is a downer about two losers likely to remain that way.

This is the new offering by Deepa Mehta, most recently she of Hollywood Bollywood, a Canadian hit last year. In fact there is an `in' joke in Republic of Love and if you have seen H.B. you'll spot it. The movie is based on a book by the late Carol Shields and surmises that each of us is our own `republic'. The theme of the movie is based on `geography is destiny' and it seems so in this case.

Republic of Love is a love story between two very different people, Tom and Fay. Tom was illegitimate and his mother, we are told, suffered from post partum depression. Tom was used as a practice baby for a class of young homemakers to be and thus had his start overlooked and spoiled by 27 `mothers'. This seems to have shaped his destiny. He is now in his early 40's, married and divorced 3 times and he wonders what love really is. He gets told every night by his listeners - he is a late night radio talk and music show host - and he gets a wide range of opinions from bitter to sentimental. He is also surrounded by good relationships so why is it so difficult for him to find one that lasts?

Fay is a museum curator, never married, whose parents have been happily married for 40 years. This has shaped her destiny. She too us surrounded by happy relationships. In addition to her parents' marriage, Her brother is married with kids, her godparents have never been married but are devoted to each other. All of this perceived perfection has the effect of making Fay keep her relationships at arms' length, a little detached. They never work out because they couldn't possibly measure up to her parents' shining example. She has just pushed away her current boyfriend because he wants to move in.

Tom and Fay turn out to have several mutual acquaintances. She even knows all of his ex wives. Tom and Fay meet at a children's Halloween party and it's literally love at first sight. Tom realizes what love really feels like and she in turn, is suddenly and inexorably ready to take that leap of faith into the sea of commitment. Serendipitously, they even live in the same apartment building, two floors apart. Clearly, it's meant to be.

Ah, but why bother making a movie at all if it was as open and shut as that? Fay's parents split up out of the blue which rocks her to her core and she doesn't deal with it very well. See? Even perfect relationships don't last!

I saw it at the Atlantic Film Festival and we had a brief introduction to it by one of the producers who described the movie as being about the different colours of love, different kinds of relationships and how they work for the different couples including the dynamics between Fay and her father and Tom and his mother who found the love of her life finally at age 52.

We all know that our relationships with our parents can have a profound effect on our adult relationships with others and all that is reflected here. Not in enough detail, however. You always feel like there should be more to the story, or that some link is missing. That is often what happens when adapting a book for the screen. The performances are all very good including a delightful one by Jackie Borroughs as Tom's mother. Most of us Canadians will remember her as Aunt Hetty from The Road to Avonlea. There are one or two other faces that will be familiar to Canadian film fans (Rebecca Jenkins). The cast seems mainly Caucasian yet the background music is most definitely Indian-Asian in flavour which seemed out of place to me so many I missed something there.

It's not a bad movie, but it was predictable as well. Fay's main area of expertise at the museum of Folklore, currently, is documenting and researching sightings of mermaids, a mythical unobtainable creature of perfection. Duh. Tom works nights in an underground `city', deserted once the overhead office blocks empty for the day (Toronto's PATH system it looks like). He's out of touch with the day to day reality, comings and goings of most people he knows and aside from his producer, spends his nights talking to lonely insomniacs.

It all works out in the end. It's a love story and nobody would go to see it if it didn't. Is it worth seeing? Yes. It's a good movie, but not a great one.

Older but totally buff Bruce Greenwood (as Tom Avery) has been married three times and considers himself unlucky in love. He discusses romance with listeners in his job as a late-night radio talk show host. Often seated below his billboard image on the subway, Mr. Greenwood attracts some weird one-night stands, especially women with foot fetishes. Assured by one of his adopted mothers there is "a lid for every pot," Greenwood finds his lid in beautiful Emilia Fox (as Fay). She works on mermaid exhibits for a museum. When problems surface in Ms. Fox' parents' marriage, we are left to wonder if the institution will survive. Enjoyed Greenwood and Fox as actors, but never cared whether or not their characters were able to maneuver modern marriage intrusions. The plight of parents Edward Fox (as Richard) and Martha Henry (as Audrey) was more interesting.

***** The Republic of Love (9/11/03) Deepa Mehta ~ Bruce Greenwood, Emilia Fox, Edward Fox, Martha Henry

Words cannot describe the distance between the novel and the piece of work on the screen. Yes, I know, "novels suffer in transition to the screen." But they should not suffer this badly. Carol shields deserves better treatment and not from a "Bollywood" director who claims to be Canadian by paperwork.

Tom Avery (Bruce Greenwood) is a late night radio DJ in Toronto and has already three divorces. Fay McLeod (Emilia Fox) is writing a mermaid book and living in a loveless relationship.

Director Deepa Mehta is definitely trying to do something with the washed out color cinematography. She's obviously denoting the lack of love in the two leads' lives. It's heavy handed. Quite frankly, I rather have it black and white. Black and white can be beautiful in its sadness. Washed out cinematography makes the film look bad and tired. The cinematography is still weak after more color is added. The movie never really recovers from the early tired washed out look. I do like the pairing of Greenwood and Fox. They are both charismatic actors. The cactus is cute and that's a solid meet-cute non-meeting. This movie is full of interesting ideas but they don't add up to what it wants to be.