Oh, Canada

Directed by Paul Schrader, Oh, Canada follows a dying filmmaker (Richard Gere’s Leo Fife) as he agrees to participate in a former student’s (Michael Imperioli’s Malcolm) documentary – with the far-from-linear narrative exploring Leo’s exploits in the past as well as his current-day efforts at getting through the shoot. Filmmaker Schrader, armed with his own screenplay, delivers a progressively erratic drama that fares best in its promising, engaging opening stretch, as the picture, which kicks off with a mesmerizing credits sequence, benefits from Schrader’s typically stirring visuals and an instantly-compelling Gere performance – with, in terms of the latter, Gere’s striking efforts matched by top-notch periphery players like Uma Thurman and Jacob Elordi. It’s disappointing to note, then, that Oh, Canada‘s hold on the viewer is slowly-but-surely loosened by a meandering, momentum-free midsection, as Schrader employs a time-shifting structure that becomes more and more difficult to wholeheartedly embrace. (It doesn’t help, either, that the picture’s been suffused with scenes and interludes of a confusing, seemingly irrelevant nature.) And while the movie does contain its share of poignant moments and ruminations on aging, Oh, Canada is, by and large, a disappointing misfire that’s rarely, if ever, as emotionally resonant as Schrader has undoubtedly intended.

** out of ****