Movie Review: Through Black Spruce

Through Black Spruce ** ½ / *****

Directed by: Don McKellar.

Written by: Barbara Samuels based on the novel by Joseph Boyden.

Starring: Tanaya Beatty (Annie), Brandon Oakes (Will), Tina Keeper (Lisette Bird), Tantoo Cardinal (Mary-Lou), Wesley French (Marius), Kiowa Gordon (Jesse), Glen Gould (Joe), Graham Greene (Leo), Parveen Kaur (Geeta), Joey Klein (Danny).

 

Director Don McKellar seems to know that he isn’t the right director for Through Black Spruce – and you can tell that by the role he gives himself in the film. McKellar is barely seen in the film, but has a couple of scenes as a journalist interested in presenting Indigenous artists to the mainstream – while seemingly having some white guilt for taking that on himself – as if it shouldn’t be his place, as a white man, to introduce Indigenous artists. In a way, that mirrors Through Black Spruce as well – because while the film is being billed as a thriller, it really doesn’t seem that interested in being a thriller – rather it’s more concerned with the lives of its Indigenous characters – a noble intention, perhaps, but one that doesn’t really work here. It’s further complicated by the fact that McKellar himself is white, and its based on the bestselling novel by Joseph Boyden – and one assumes the film was in some stage of production before the controversy about Boyden – a white guy, who claimed Indigenous roots no one can seemingly verify – came to light. McKellar’s film has a strangely slack pace for a thriller, and I’m not sure it does very much to present the important issues it raises in an enlighteningly way.

 

The film stars Tanaya Beatty as Annie – a Cree woman of about 20, living way up north with her Mom Lisette (Tina Keeper) and Uncle Will (Brandon Oakes). Annie’s sister left for Toronto a year ago – and had a brief career as a model, before she and her boyfriend just seemingly vanished – and haven’t been heard from since. The cops don’t seem that interested, and now months later with no word, they have almost given up on every finding her. But when Annie’s friend wins at Bingo – and invites Annie on a trip to Toronto, Annie starts looking into things deeper than anyone else has before – even staying on long after her friend returns home. She meets some of her sister’s old friends – an Indigenous artist Jesse (Kiowa Gordon) – who has a show all about exploitation and suffering of Indigenous women, with her sister as the model, her roommate Geeta (Parveen Kaur) – also a model, and some less savory characters as well – drug dealers, etc. And yet Annie never seems to get any closer to the truth. The film moves back and forth between Annie and Will – who is back home up North, still struggling with something he did in his past, and also fighting with the local drug dealer – who really wants to find Annie’s sister, since her boyfriend was his old partner – and may owe some money. In both Toronto and up North, violence threatens to break out.

 

McKellar is a curious choice to direct Through Black Spruce – not just because he’s a white guy telling an Indigenous story (although that certainly doesn’t help) – but also because as a director, he has never really done a thriller before. His best film was his 1998 debut – Last Night – a very Canadian apocalypse film about the very last night on earth, which was low-key, quietly funny and also a little profound. He has mainly done comedies before – films like Childstar and The Grand Seduction. But there is nothing funny about Through Black Spruce – it really is a rather oppressive film in many ways, because while it’s not quite a parade of misery, it isn’t far off either. McKellar presents every character that Annie meets in Toronto – with the exception of Graham Greene, playing a homeless guy – as ominous, and perhaps dangerous, so we spend most of the movie waiting for the other shoe to drop on each character (and quite a few shows are dropped). For Will’s half of the movie, it must be said that not a lot happens – we have a lot of quiet scenes of him by himself, as the third revelation of his past seemingly comes out of nowhere. I think that both Beatty and Oates are quite good in the movie – even if the narrative isn’t as involving, we care about them – but McKellar never quite finds the right tone here. The climax of the film seems rushed – as if they knew they were running out of time, and had to wrap things up quickly.

 

As a film, Through Black Spruce never quite works. I think McKellar may well have been going for an Egoyan like thriller – one that moves so slowly that you barely notice that it is a thriller until you’re completely wrapped up in it – but that sort of thing is hard to do (just ask Egoyan – who hasn’t gotten that sort of thriller right in more than a decade now). The film just never comes together. The performances of Beatty and Oakes – the characters they play – and the issue raised of missing Indigenous women deserve better than what they get here. You’re probably better to just go listen to the CBC podcast Missing and Murdered: Finding Cleo – than watching this film. It will take longer – but it’s so much better.