Cheating, obscured messages and a suicidal teenager
The Program
(out of 4) Starring Ben Foster, Chris O’Dowd, Guillaume Canet, Jesse Plemons and Dustin Hoffman. Directed by Stephen Frears. 103 minutes. Opens Friday at the Carlton. STC
Aside from a fully immersed portrayal of disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong from Ben Foster — down to the actor taking performanceenhancing drugs himself — it’s hard to get with The Program.
Director Stephen Frears ( The Queen) starts out with a biopic feel, switching gears for the most satisfying part as Armstrong evades detection while embarking on a by-any-means-necessary quest to overcome inborn physical limitations and cancer to win the Tour de France seven times.
Chris O’Dowd plays Sunday Times sports journalist David Walsh ( Trainspotting’s John Hodge based his screenplay on Walsh’s book Seven Deadly Sins: My Pursuit of Lance Armstrong), who smelled a rat when Armstrong went from solid racer to superhuman.
Guillaume Canet plays doping doc Michele Ferrari, who helps Armstrong orchestrate the minute details of cheating for his team: drugs, blood doping and trickery, even as the cyclist decides he’ll do good by starting an inspiring charity for cancer patients.
Foster nails Armstrong, right down to his final, clenched-jaw TV confession to Oprah Winfrey, but The Program’s glancing narrative feels less secure. Linda Barnard
Knight of Cups
(out of 4) Starring Christian Bale, Brian Dennehy. Written and directed by Terrence Malick. Opens Friday at Varsity Cinemas. 118 minutes. 14A
Pity poor Rick, a much sought-after Hollywood writer living “the life of someone I didn’t even know,” as he laments in a voice-over.
Or perhaps pity would be better reserved for fans of the auteur filmmaker Terrence Mallick, who has helmed such enduring masterpieces as Badlands (1973) and The Tree of Life (2011) but delivers here something much less memorable.
Mallick’s work is always visually arresting and Knight of Cups is no exception. But the film, which begins with a voice-over from late, great Shakespearean actor Sir John Gielgud, is both too ponderous (as in overly long) and too elliptical (with its references to tarot cards, meant as guide posts to an elusive central theme.)
The film is strewn with top talent, including the late Brian Dennehy as Rick’s angry father, as well as Cate Blanchett, Natalie Portman and Antonio Banderas.
But virtually every scene is delivered through a gauzy cinematic curtain that obscures rather than elucidates, and we never come close to penetrating the angst-filled veneer of the protagonist. Bruce DeMara
Coconut Hero
(out of 4) Starring Alex Ozerov, Bea Santos, Krista Bridges and Sebastian Schipper. Directed by Florian Cossen. 97 minutes. Opens Friday at the Carlton. PG
Too obvious in its quest for quirkiness, director Florian Cossen’s German-Canadian indie about a suicidal16-year-old named Mike Tyson (Alex Ozerov) has some original moments, but not enough of them to make Coconut Hero stand out.
Ozerov is good, in a Michael Cera vein, as Mike, moping around his small Ontario town when he’s not building a coffin or trying and failing to kill himself, leaving a suicide note reminding his overbearing mom (Krista Bridges) to feed his fish. He misses his absentee dad ( Run Lola Run’s Sebastian Schipper) and he’s bullied about his name at school, but the lack of clear motivation for Mike’s quest to end his life — abandoned with his diagnosis of a brain tumour — trivializes teen suicide while trying to land comedy beats.
While well-meaning but bumbling adults don’t help Mike, he’s attracted to wise Miranda (Bea Santos), the pretty young teacher at the “life-affirming treatment” class recommended by his shrink (Udo Kier). Their charming ukulele ode to a dead deer is a highlight. Linda Barnard
Boris sans Béatrice
(out of 4) Starring James Hyndman, Simone-Élise Girard, Denis Lavant. Written and directed by Denis Côté. 93 minutes. Opens Friday at TIFF Bell Lightbox. STC
Quebec formalist Denis Côté ( Curling, Bestiaire) never fully embraces the mainstream with his films, preferring the elliptical over the expositive and images over words.
So it’s intriguing and a little frustrating to see him flirting with a Dickens-meets-Serling narrative with this cautionary tale about arrogance upbraided. Writer/director Côté draws us in through his customary visual flair and astute casting — including the droll hire of filmmaker Bruce LaBruce as the Canadian prime minister — but then leaves us wanting more story.
James Hyndman is hubristic one-percenter Boris Malinovsky, whose bullying and bedhopping ways have left him a shell of man, although he doesn’t recognize this. His wife Béatrice (Simone-Élise Girard), a federal cabinet minister, retreats into blank depression, silently scolding.
Bullet-headed (and pigheaded) Boris must also negotiate demands and judgments from his mother (Louise Laprade), his daughter (Laetitia Isambert-Denis), his mistress (Dounia Sichov) and Béatrice’s caregiver (Isolda Dychauk). None of them vex as much as the mysterious demanding stranger played by Denis Lavant, who insists Boris mend his selfish ways.
Lavant engages, but he was so much better as the Chaplinesque troll of Holy Motors than the chatty nag here. Just another Côté puzzler, I guess. Peter Howell