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The Academy doesn't always get things right.  In 2003, *Ondskan (Evil)* was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film along side <i>Barbarian Invasions.  </i>The latter won.  Having watched both films, I have to wonder what the Academy was thinking with this selection.  <i>Barbarian Invasions </i>was okay, but between the cheap soundtrack, sluggish pacing and staging, the film often felt like a soap opera.  My vote would have gone to Evil, although I have not yet seen <i>Twilight Samurai</i> which was also nominated in 2003.  

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<i>Barbarian Invasions</i> covers a lot of ground.  It delves into politics, religions, drugs, sex, euthanasia, family dysfunction and reconciliation.  All legitimate topics which, in this film, were meshed together in a way that made sense.  However, the script seemed geared towards tugging at heartstrings with a bit of levity to keep things from getting too heavy.  I found the sappy parts to be marginal because I didn't care much for the characters and the humor to be somewhat flat.  Some of the humor was language based.  Because the language in the film is French, there might be some translation issues, but I still understood some of the double entendres and still found them lacking.

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Remy (Remy Girard) is a philandering professor.  His wife has remained true to him even though they have lived apart for fifteen years.  His relationship with his son Sebastien (Stephane Rousseau) and daughter has grown cold from years of separation.  Sebastien works for a bank, offsetting risk for large corporations.  He is good at what he does and has managed to parlay his success into incredible wealth.  Money does not seem to be an issue for him.  When Remy falls ill, Sebastien reluctantly comes to assist his mother in tending to him.  Sebastien uses his money and financial worldview to buy his father comfort in a crumbling Canadian health system.  

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Aside from getting his father a room on an empty floor of the hospital, Sebastien also sets out to ease his father's pain with heroin.  He is assisted in this task by a young junkie named Nathalie (Marie-Josee Croze).  Although Sebastien is engaged to Gaelle (Marina Hands), there seems to be chemistry between Nathalie and Sebastien that is never fully explored.  <i>Barbarian Invasions</i> focuses on Remy's passion for life and difficulty in accepting his pending demise.  He is supported in his final journey with a group of close friends whom Sebastien brings together to help Remy come to terms with his life and death.  

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<i>Barbarian Invasions</i> is a warm story, but it is never quite intimate.  I never felt like I was part of the &quot;family.&quot;  I watched from a sterile distance at the events being portrayed without ever feeling like I was invited in.  Denys Arcand, who wrote and directed this film, presents many interesting topics but never seems to engage the audience.  Or maybe it was just me.  The characters had some dimension, but I was a little perturbed that Sebastien was allowed to purchase his way through the film without ever hitting resistance.  I was offended by it.  It seemed like the easy way out and made the character meaningless for me.  I would have liked to see Sebastien struggle a little in the film...at the very least, he could have struggled over his relationship with his father, which he simply concedes.  With Sebastien as one of the central characters I felt cheated by his lack of substance.

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Remy was a bit more complicated, even though he has less screen time for us to figure him out.  It seemed as if his character was trying to come to terms with his past.  This was played out in some of his tirades against the church while talking with a Sister (Johanne-Marie Tremblay) who seems to have incredible patience with him.  Some characters were better than others.  The dialogue was okay but some of the attempts at levity failed to click with me.  There was some word-play worked into the script, so some of it could have been lost in translation.  The overall plot and concept were interesting to me, but drifted to the cerebral side a little too far.  It sort of felt like this film might have been geared towards self-proclaimed intelligentsia.  

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Although I thought Rousseau's character was flat, I did not feel it was connected to his performance.  I actually liked him and hoped to see him have the opportunity to deliver some powerful drama.  There were a few times he came close but never really got to show much range.  I was very engaged by Girard's performance.  He had great range and some interesting dialogue.  His delivery was passionate and gripping.  I enjoyed Croze, as well.  I enjoyed watching her generate a subtle chemistry with Rousseau's character.  Her ability to send silent signals without overarching translated well to the screen.  The cast was large but most of the characters were simple, contributing to the depth of Remy's character more than standing alone.  The cast was strong.

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<i>Barbarian Invasions</i> deals with death and euthanasia as a central theme.  For this, they have earned an R rating from the MPAA.  I think most people under the age of forty will be utterly bored by this film unless they pretend to enjoy it to increase their social standing in intellectual circles.  So I wouldn't worry about younger viewers too much.  Having said that, I think the rating is a bit harsh.  There were adult themes, drug use and plenty of political and religious drivel, but not much that was outright objectionable.  Teenage audiences should be able to handle the material in this film if they are able to stay awake.

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<i>Barbarian Invasions</i> never felt like propaganda...although some of those concepts crept into the script.  I found the material to be supportive of the characters, more an indication of their character than an attempt at indoctrination.  I enjoyed the broad themes in <i>Barbarian Invasions</i> and was mildly engaged with Remy's character.  I thought the script took too many shortcuts and cheated some of the characters (and the audience) and found the levity to be flat.  I think that had much to do with the translation.  In totality, I enjoyed the story in spite of the short-comings but am still dumbfounded that this film won the award for Best Foreign Language Film.  I would recommend it, but only mildly.  6.5/10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8zyMnzJ8BY

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