Canadian “documentary” intrigues
(Canscene) — Many Canadian films have tried so hard to be different that too often the result never lives up to the promise.
Now here comes Let Him Be, which its makers insist isn’t a mockumentary but more properly a “documentary” that is to say a film made in documentary style without the laughs.
The film asks What if John Lennon hadn’t died from that assassin’s bullet back in 1980?
Let Him Be started a week’s run at the AMC Metropolis 24 Theatre, Dundas Square in Toronto on May 29. It was then to travel on to Vancouver. Let Him Be plays like a real documentary film as Tim Bennett, a young Toronto film maker discovers a fragment of film showing an elderly man who looks like Beatle John Lennon.
He persuades his girl friend and film making partner, Kathleen to join him in a search for the man he believes really is the iconic Lennon
In a small northern Ontario town they learn of a reclusive local named Noel Snow who could be the man they’re looking for.
To divulge the rest of this plot would be to deprive you of the suspense that builds in this fine movie. Sean Clement as Tim and Kathleen Munroe as Kathleen play well under the direction of Peter McNamee, who was also the screenwriter. Not only the principals but the entire cast are perfect in their roles as typical small town people. I particularly liked Barbara Baker as the owner of a diner and Graham Wignall as Stanley Fields, Noel’s companion.
Unfortunately the sin of pessimism tempts us to consider the distribution fate of many other Canadian films. It is fervently hoped that Let Him Be will find its way to DVD as quickly as possible.
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June 1st, 2009 at 12:24 pm
Sam Javanrouh saw John Lennon at a screening of the film.
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