Oh, Canada (2024)

3 Stars (out of 4)

Canadian Achin'

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Perhaps one of filmmaker Paul Schrader's most personal movies, Oh, Canada is a mishmash collage of death, filmmaking, guilt, and redemption-seeking, and an ambitious, unruly jumble, chasing after the shadow of Citizen Kane.

Leonard Fife (Richard Gere) is dying. He's a famed documentary filmmaker who achieved legendary status by moving from the U.S. to Canada as a conscientious objector, rather than being drafted into the military. He agrees to let a documentary crew comprised of former students, Malcolm (Michael Imperioli) and Diana (Victoria Hill), make a film about his life; they are accompanied by the young, pretty Sloane (Penelope Mitchell).

Leonard insists that his much younger wife, Emma (Uma Thurman), also a former student, be present at all times. As filming begins, it becomes clear that Leonard has no intention to answer any prepared questions; he wants to use the time and the platform to clear the air about his own past, and perhaps find forgiveness.

Oh, Canada reunites Schrader with Richard Gere, the star of his American Gigolo, made over four decades earlier. Schrader also returns to the work of the late novelist Russell Banks, whose Affliction provided the basis of Schrader's excellent 1998 movie; this one is based on Banks's 2001 novel Foregone. (Banks's novel The Sweet Hereafter was also adapted into an acclaimed film.)

Like Citizen Kane, the nonlinear timeline not only jumps from past to present seemingly at random, but it also switches out Gere for his younger self — played by Jacob Elordi — and vice-versa, within those timelines. Likewise, both Uma Thurman and Penelope Mitchell play characters in both timelines. It can be difficult to follow what's going on, especially since many of the characters have "A" names (Amanda, Alicia, Amy), and certainly Schrader has never been one to be concerned about what audiences think.

Nevertheless, Oh, Canada comes together as a complex whole, a feeling or a sensation of what this person, this Leonard Fife, might have been like, rather than a list of facts. Of course, through all of this, Schrader is really talking about himself, which is one of the boldest things an artist can do.