Offbeat movie has lovely little touches
I’m Yours
Starring: Karine Vanasse, Rossif Sutherland, Don
Mckellar Playing at: AMC cinema Parents’ guide: language, sexual sequences, drug and
alcohol use. The road movie romance is revisited in I’m Yours, a charmingly offbeat outing by Canadian writer-director Leonard Farlinger. Farlinger has helmed a few films before (All Hat, The Perfect Son), and has an impressive track record as a producer (including Bruce Mcdonald’s Trigger), so he knows the ins and outs of indie cinema.
He puts that knowledge to good use here, snagging Québécoise star Karine Vanasse (Pan Am, Polytechnique) and Rossif (another son of Donald) Sutherland to play Daphne and Robert, troubled lovers for whom a one-night stand turns into a long drive into the unknown.
Both actors impress: Vanasse is radiant, evoking a mix of spontaneity and sorrow; while Sutherland lends soulful notes to his character’s conflicted exterior.
Can-con Everyman Don Mckellar is a perfect fit as Robert’s pal Phil.
The two are Wall St. financiers out to celebrate Robert’s 30th birthday at a local bar.
Their conversation goes from Robert’s recent breakup to the expansion of the universe, which is sending Earth “hurtling into the unknown of space.”
That kind of swing-for-the-fences existential dialogue provides a recurring theme (the line even returns, later in the film) as Robert hooks up with Daphne, and one thing leads to another.
“The foundations of humanity have collapsed,” he observes, before asking about her greatest fear.
“That I’ve been making all the wrong choices,” she replies, “or that we have no choices.”
Robert and Daphne’s subsequent choices involve doing recreational drugs and having hot sex in a motel room. Shot with saturated colours, jump cuts and a hip soundtrack, their wild night (which includes a fun scene in which a hyper Vanasse jumps around on the bed) encapsulates the film’s casually edgy vibe.
As Daphne prepares to make her exit in the wee hours, she discovers something among Robert’s belongings that makes her change course. She wakes him from his slumber and they are soon driving across the Canadian border to visit her parents in North Bay, Ont.
While the premise is shaky – Daphne semi-blackmails Robert into making the trip, the realism of which is tenuous, at best – it’s the little touches that keep us on board. Artful shots of open skies, lakes and bridges evoke both Canadiana and the existential journey these characters are embarking upon.
Daphne is out to confront her troubled past, while Robert is running from his troubled mind. The basis of their relationship goes from escapism to mutual dependency as they get to know each other and begin to lean on one another in unexpected ways.
“You keep looking for change, and change finds you,” Robert says, in the film’s quiet climax.
Although occasionally awkward in its execution, I’m Yours does a good job of conveying life’s messiness, its unexpected twists and the roundabout way we sometimes get to where we were going all along.