TIFF 09: DEFENDOR Review

[This review previously appeared as one of my regular columns at Showcase.  Thanks to the powers that be there for allowing us to reprint it here.]

Apparently Canada is looking to corner the market on unusual lo-fi superhero films. In 2006 Toronto native Hal Haberman co-wrote and co-directed a little film that received big love in these pages. Titled Special it starred Michael Rapaport as a clinical depressed man who begins to experience strange powers after entering an experimental drug trial. And now? Now Peter Stebbings arrives with Defendor, the tale of a (mostly) ordinary man with delusions of heroism who dons a self-made costume and heads out in the dark of night to rid The Hammer - that'd be the city of Hamilton, allowed to play itself here - of crime. Despite the obvious similarities between the two films, Defendor is a much darker, much more serious affair, with the stakes higher and the consequences more severe. Unlike Special there's never any element of 'does he or doesn't he have powers' here - he clearly does not - nor is there a question as to whether the central character is mentally ill and delusional - he clearly is - but what the two films share are powerhouse performances from their stars, in this case Woody Harrelson as Arthur Poppington, AKA Defendor.

The Hammer is awash with crime, the streets rife with cheap drugs and cheaper women and the police either powerless to make a difference or, as is the case with Officer Chuck Dooney (Elias Koteas), actively involved in all the illicit activity. And so it is that the masked hero Defendor - his costume little more than duct tape, face paint and relics from his grandfather's stint in WWII - comes across Dooney late one night with the officer in the first stage of a blowjob-for-drugs transaction with teenage junkie Kat (Kat Dennings). Though this isn't who Defendor is out looking for - his quarry is the elusive and powerful Captain Industry, whom he blames for his mother's death many years before - a crime is a crime and he steps in, leaving Dooney with a ringing headache courtesy of grandpa's trench-club, Kat with an unlikely protector and Defendor with a surprising ally in the police captain who lets him walk free.

As the film progresses it both indulges and subverts the path you'd expect it to take. We get to know the real Arthur thanks in part to an intercut psychiatric evaluation - conducted by Sandra Oh - and in part due to his growing relationship with Kat. He's a tragic figure, a man of obviously diminished capacity still grieving the loss of his mother in childhood who fixated on his heroic life both as a means of giving his own life meaning and giving him someone - even if only a fictitious someone - to blame for the death of his mother. The problem, however, comes when Kat - not realizing the true depths of Arthur's delusions - sets him on the path of a real-life gangster, the man responsible for running the drugs and women into The Hammer.

While the film feels as though actor-turned-director Stebbings - who makes his directorial debut here - was still one solid draft away from really figuring out what to do with the Dooney and Kat characters to really lock them in it also shows that he has learned his trade well over his years as an in-demand character player. Stebbings not only proves to be a fantastic actors' director - drawing solid performances out of his entire very skilled cast - but also an impressive visual stylist, effortlessly creating a convincing alternate version of a very real city, a Hamilton that matches the world in Arthur's head more than anything that exists in reality. So full marks, then, for Stebbings, a talented performer who first appeared on screens twenty years ago while still in his teens and now takes his place as one of Canada's more promising new directors in years, easily able to blend character work and obvious commercial sensibilities.

As solid as Stebbings' work is, however, it is Harrelson who carries the film. He creates such a compelling figure out of Arthur / Defendor that it becomes easy to find the humanity and tragedy in the character, elements that could easily be lost in the general silliness of a grown man fighting crime with marbles. Harrelson features large in virtually every scene and his work here is among the very best of his career, showing some remarkable depth and willingness to really let everything go to make Arthur work and he absolutely succeeds. Though the film is not a perfect one and the script has some obvious flaws Harrelson's performance is strong enough that the flaws are easy to forgive.