Citizen Duane

Citizen Duane is an entertaining yet distinctly forgettable little comedy revolving around the residents of a small Canadian town, where a tenacious high schooler Duane Balfour (Douglas Smith) decides to run for mayor. Director Michael Mabbott imbues Citizen Duane with an appropriately lighthearted touch – a vibe that’s reflected in Jonathan Sobol and Robert DeLeskie’s equally fluffy screenplay – and the film consequently moves at a brisk clip and generally remains an engaging (albeit inconsequential) piece of work. Smith is charismatic and likeable as the central character, while Donal Logue – playing one of Duane’s eccentric relatives – deftly steals the film from under his co-stars at every turn (the sequence in which he recalls his fruitless efforts to cultivate a monkey jockey is probably worth the price of admission). But the movie sort of runs out of steam as it progresses, eventually dropping the laid-back tone in favor of something that’s far more dramatic and ultimately heavy-handed than one might’ve expected. Nevertheless, Citizen Duane is – more often than not – an unusually breezy effort out of Canada.

**1/2 out of ****