FILM BARELY STAYS AFLOAT
Despite strong environmental message, well-meaning Kayak to Klemtu flounders
One of the travails of being a movie critic is figuring out how to treat a well-meaning movie that doesn’t quite work. Indian Horse was one such beast; ecstatically received by audiences across the country, it told an important story about Indigenous identity and suffering. Five out of five for heart, I say, but a mere three stars for the filmmakers’ craft.
Kayak to Klemtu, available Tuesday on VOD, falls into the same category. Message-wise, it couldn’t be better; a 14-yearold Indigenous girl named Ella (Ta’kaiya Blaney) paddles 500 kilometres up the coast of British Columbia to pay homage to her deceased uncle and reach the village of Klemtu, where she will testify about the dangers of allowing supertankers into the nearby waters that her people depend on for their livelihood.
The problem arises not in the story but the telling. Director and co-writer Zoe Leigh Hopkins hits just about every cliché imaginable in the film’s 90 minutes.
There’s the I’m-eating-icecream-straight-from-the-tub-because-i’m-sad scene. The ol’ throw-the-cellphone-out-the-window manoeuvre. (In this case, it’s into the ocean.) Since our heroine has 25 days until the hearings, there’s a ticking-clock subplot. And her late uncle is an almost stereotypically wise shaman, appearing in dreams and flashbacks to deliver platitudes.
The actors do good work, though they’ve clearly been directed to pitch their performances into the comic realm, which sometimes undercuts the larger tone of the film. As Ella’s other uncle, Lorne Cardinal reminds us that he’s a solid acting force and one of Canada’s great Lornes.
The film’s message of environmental protection is powerful, and backed by an ironic real-life coda; days after filming was completed, a barge spilled 200,000 litres of diesel fuel off the coast of Bella Bella, a nearby fishing community and the director’s hometown. But as a drama, Kayak to Klemtu ultimately founders.