Tom At The Farm, film review: Xavier Dolan's movie doesn't live up to its music

(15) Xavier Dolan, 103 mins Starring: Xavier Dolan, Pierre-Yves Cardinal, Lise Roy

Geoffrey Macnab
Thursday 03 April 2014 18:33 EDT
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Young French-Canadian director Xavier Dolan also stars as Tom
Young French-Canadian director Xavier Dolan also stars as Tom

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Tom at the Farm boasts an atmospheric, Bernard Herrmann-like score from Gabriel Yared – but the movie doesn't live up to its music.

The young French-Canadian director Xavier Dolan, who also stars as Tom, shows visual flair but seems uncertain whether he is making a gay psycho-drama, a thriller or a study in bereavement. Tom is in the countryside for the funeral of his boyfriend.

The boyfriend's psychotic brother Francis (Pierre-Yves Cardinal) terrorises him and insists he keep up the fiction that the dead man was straight.

Tom seems to relish being menaced by Francis – one key reason why the film lacks a real sense of menace or conviction.

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