While the 2005 edition of the Toronto International Film Festival has yet to roll out a handful of Festival titles are getting early press screenings through this week and next, a fact I used to my advantage to catch Jean-Marc Vallee's Quebecois coming of age drama C.R.A.Z.Y. today.
Clocking in a little over two hours C.R.A.Z.Y. is a little over long but embedded in that lengthy run time is a near flawless film. And, really, considering how finely wrought and beautifully performed all of Vallee's characters are I don't think I could have brought myself to cut a single frame out either, had I been in his shoes.
The film tells the story of Zac Beaulieu, the second youngest of five sons in the Beaulieu family, starting from the day of his birth: December 25th, 1960. Yes, Zac is a Christmas baby and the film begins with a mournful voiceover explaining how he always hated Christmas both because it overshadowed his own birthday and because he never got what he wanted. The problem, you see, is that Zac is a quiet, sensitive boy growing up in a rough and tumble family in blue collar, presumably small-town, Quebecois family, and the things that interest him aren't considered nearly manly enough. Eldest brother Christian is a bookworm, reading compulsively and prized for his intelligence. Second brother Raymond is a surly, rebellious teen whose very defiance is valued by their father as a sign of his manly energy. Third brother Antoine is the jock of the family, excelling in all sports. And Zac? What he really wants for Christmas is a toy baby carriage. His father gets him table hockey.
Yes, you guessed it. C.R.A.Z.Y. is not only a coming of age story, it is a gay coming of age story though, frankly, if it wouldn't be hugely misleading to do so I'd prefer to leave that aspect of the film alone entirely simply because the phrase 'gay film' will immiediately have a lot of people shuttiong down assuming it has no relevance to them and C.R.A.Z.Y. is so much more than that, being both an ode to family life in the sixties and seventies and an enormously inclusive look at what it means to grow up different, something I'm sure virtually everyone can relate to as we've all pushed against societal and family limits at different times.
The film breaks down neatly into three sections. Act one centers on six year old Zac, a quiet, loving boy who adores his parents and fights with his brothers. Zac's father is a construction worker, idolized for his extensive record collection - the soundtrack to this film is simply stunning - and the fact that he fired a machine gun during the war. Covert father-son trips for french fries are the high point of Zac's young life. Zac's mother is a loving, intensely devout woman who becomes convinced that Zac has some sort of special blessing, some supernatural powers, when she realizes that he is able to calm his colicy younger brother Yvan when nobody else can. She encourages Zac's sensitive side while his father tries to find respectible, boyish pastimes for him.
This first section of the film is an absolute marvel, charged with childhood delight and innocence and dazzling flights of fancy. This is the world seen through a child's eyes and it plays out like the bastard child of Amelie and The Wonder Years. Visually smart and frequently laugh out loud funny Act One establishes the family perfectly. But Zac's childhood happiness isn't to last forever and the change comes when his father discovers him dressing in his mother's clothes while taking care of Baby Yvan. In Zac's own words he had just unwittingly declared war on his father and a layer of tension appears between them that was never there before ...
Act Two brings us to fifteen year old Zac trying to find an identity for himself holed up in his room listening to David Bowie and Pink Floyd records while mimicking Bruce Lee moves. Mocked mercilessly by his brothers for never having a girlfriend Zac is determined not to be a fairy but the situation is complicated by his conflicting desires and the fact that the only girl he's really attracted to happens to be his cousin. When he is propositioned by a boy at school Zac responds violently but eventually begins to experiment, only to be caught by his father and sent to a psychologist to be 'cured'.
The second act undergoes a style shift to match Zac's changing perception of the world. It is more brash and brazen, driven by a mid seventies glam-rock soundtrack and sudden stylistic fluorishes as Zac indulges his youthful feelings of invincibility. The purity of the opening segment has slipped away, replaced by bravado and swagger.
Act Three picks up in 1980. Zac is now a successful DJ, aware that he is attracted to men but still fighting the urge while living with his girlfriend, Michelle. Things are tense between Zac and his father and Zac's brother Raymond has developed a king sized drug habit. When outed at his brother's wedding Zac is disowned by his father and leaves the country to try and come to terms with himself. By this point most of the levity has left the film as we're now dealing with a fully adult family with fully adult problems. This third act, in particular, is where things tend to drag a little bit in spots.
Now, looking at a basic synopsis it's tempting to write this thing off as being littered with stock characters and little else. Look at it: bookish brother, tough brother, sporty brother, gay brother, homophobe father, religious mother. On a good day you'd look at all these types and say that Vallee is dealing with archetypes. On a bad day you'd call them cliches. There are two things that save the film from sliding into two dimensional cliche. First, the actors are all fantastic from the child actors right on through to the adults. If there is a bad performance here I certainly didn't see it. They absolutely nail the family interactions with all of the ebb and flow and nuanced glances that goes with that. Are they stock types? Maybe, but I know people who fit all of these types as I'm sure you do and the actors here flesh every one of them out into fully blooded, three dimensional people. Second, the writing is fantastic: sharp, funny, and filled with the little details and digressions that make life interesting. And Vallee and co-writer Francois Boulay just refuse to take the expected paths.
Here's an example. You've got the druggie brother (Raymond) and the gay (actually very likely bi) brother (Zac). In a lesser film this is played to show the hypocrisy of the moral system. It goes like this: druggie brother's sin is accepted with a nod and a wink because it is at least a 'manly' sin while gay brother's sin is roundly condemned by all. I'm sure you've seen this done before. But the film just refuses to go there. In many ways Raymond and Zac are played as opposite sides of the same coin, both just trying to survive being different in a world that values conformity. Also very telling is the way Vallee handles both Zac and his father's struggles to come to terms with Zac's sexuality. Both fight it as hard as they can - Zac seems utterly repulsed by himself as he is drawn to experiment and prays regularly for a cure while his father views Zac's homosexuality as reflecting some failure on his part - and the relationship never once veers into preaching. Zac's father would be a man very easy to demonize but Vallee refuses to take that simple, easy route instead playing him as a man caught between his love for his child - which is clearly deep and genuine - and his horror at what, to him, is at best an intense sickness and at worst utter depravity. Rather than moralizing on the subject Valle simply presents it as real people dealing with a real issue and leaves it to the audience to draw whatever conclusions they may, at least until a final scene that is clumsy, unnecessary, surprisingly gimmicky and tries to hard to wrap things up neatly.
As it stands now C.R.A.Z.Y. isn't a perfect film but there's something awfully close to perfection lurking in there mighty close to the surface. A director with visual style to burn; a touching, funny and sharply intelligent script; a dazzling soundtrack; a cast that kills from top to bottom. C.R.A.Z.Y. has got it all.