BIFF Review / Laurence Anyways ****

Director: Xavier Dolan
Where: Liberty Theatre
Showing: Saturday, April 13 at 9:15pm.

Laurence Anyways explores the intimate journey of a man transitioning into a woman and the everyday trials he has to go through to get there. 

It’s a tragic love affair between two people who couldn’t be more suited to one another — Laurence who is changing , and his girlfriend, Fred. 

They both share the same contempt for society at large and revel in ridiculing it during their debaucherous little outings to the car wash. 

It makes for some lively, edgy dialogue that the pair exchange naturally on screen. It’s enough to make you want them to work everything out.

There are many breathtaking scenes that take us deep into the mind of our hero Laurence (Melvil Poupand) and his girlfriend Fred (Suzanne Clement).

The films has some fantastic imagery — at one point he opens his mouth and a beautiful butterfly crawls out and flies away. It could be a metaphor for his transformation from something he sees as ugly into what he wants to be. 

For me there were moments where it all seems so unfortunate, Laurence seems to live a charmed life with his soul mate Fred, his intellectual, witty circle of friends, his interesting job and bourgeoning writing career. 

This is a clever tool that director Xavier Dolan uses to get you questioning your own levels of acceptance. When his world starts crashing down around him as he addresses his desires to change, you might find yourself wishing he could just “get over it” but the film opens your eyes to how life would be so much worse if he denied what is in his nature. 

When things get a little serious there are welcome moments of light relief through a group of over-the-top transvestites who border on the gaudy and flamboyant. 

They lift him out of his funk and offer him a refuge without judgement. This is so refreshing after the barrage of prejudice, confrontation and presumptions he experiences everywhere else. 

He suffers a backlash of different reactions from the people in his life — Fred feels violated and cheated, his mother shocked and ashamed, the thug in the pub disgusted and enraged.

Dolan makes you think about things you wouldn’t usually have to consider he brings Laurence’s situation to life.

Laurence is aware there is a man in the pub who is disgusted by his appearance — fearing the worst you see him discretely remove his earrings from his ears and prepare for the inevitable beating. 

The film does drift on and could do with editing down. There are too many twists and turns in the direction of the main relationship. Like when you go on a rollercoaster, it is exhilarating at first but becomes dizzying after a while. You are desperate for some kind of solution by the end in this on/off epic.

The time is broken up by some quite stunning and often quirky cinematography, often with echos of film noir, while bordering on the fantastical. Dolan is playful and adventurous in his scenes showering a living room with water in one scene while having it rain down colourful clothes in another.

It is a very human film — when tensions rise it is palatable. When Laurence stands in front of the class for the first time as a woman there is a long silence, you can hear every trembling breath and gulp in the throat. It puts you right there in his (high heeled) shoes. The film has a pulse, and offers you a fresh breath of air in a society that writhes with contempt and ridicule for this section of society.