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C.R.A.Z.Y. (2005)
16. Apr 2006 at 04:46
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Growing up a patsy in a man's world
ALLAN HUNTER

C.R.A.Z.Y. (15)
Director:
Jean-Marc Vallée

Starring:
Marc-André Grondin

Running time:
125 minutes

CINEMA has served up so many plaintive coming-of-age stories that you wonder if there is anything left to say on the growing pains of any given generation. Inspired by the dramatic family life of screenwriter Francois Boulay, C.R.A.Z.Y. has the advantage of being based in truth and bittersweet souvenirs of times gone by. The focus here is on the dynamic of a close but permanently strained father/son relationship in which they journey towards mutual understanding and some elusive notion of what constitutes masculinity.

An endless scrapbook of memories and moments, this often feels like some condensed, omnibus edition of a never-ending soap opera. Director Jean-Marc Vallée takes a sincere but stylish approach to the material, imbuing these family memories with a hint of Terence Davies and a firm nod in the direction of fellow Canadian Jean-Claude Lauzon's Leolo. The result is a seductive saga that enthrals but also frustrates with the degree of restraint and reserve it adopts in dealing with the main character's sexuality.

Born on Christmas Day 1960, Zachary (played by Marc-André Grondin as a teenager) is the fourth son of Laurianne (Danielle Proulx) and the old-fashioned Gervais (Michel Côté). Laurianne loves her boys unconditionally and Gervais appears to have a special bond with Zac. The bond has begun to unravel though by the time Zac is six. The father presents him with a hockey game when what he really wanted was a doll's pram.

It already seems clear that Zac is not going to conform to his father's definition of a man. Eldest brother Raymond (Pierre-Luc Brillant) has called him fairy, and the whole film centres on Zac's painful road towards self-discovery. He constantly dreads that he may be gay, which is the one thing that his father will never accept, and so his life becomes about denial, self-sacrifice and the extremes to which he will go to win the approval of the one man who matters.

The truth of C.R.A.Z.Y. lies in the details. When the seven-year-old Zac is caught dressed up in his mother's clothes it is like a declaration of war between father and son. During his adolescence in the 1970s, Zac is instinctively drawn to glam rock and rebellion, painting his face to look like David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust, while his father clings more closely to his love of Patsy Cline and Charles Aznavour. Their mutual affection for the throbbing emotion and melodrama of Cline and Aznavour should be something that draws them together even if they are taking something completely different from the music.

The narrative does seem reticent in dealing with Zac's sexuality as he continues to live in denial. There is some vague incident in a car with another boy from school. There is an attraction to his cousin's dance partner that smoulders over a shared joint and precious little else to help make explicit the defining dilemma of his existence.

Despite some reservations, C.R.A.Z.Y. is still a perceptive, well-acted drama that frequently strikes just the right note of poignancy in its complex portrait of the ties that eternally bind a father and a son. It is easily the most accomplished film to emerge from Canada in recent memory.

On general uk release from Friday

Last updated: 15-Apr-06 00:12 BST

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