The Trotsky
Starring Jay Baruchel. Rated PG. Opens Friday, May 14, at the Fifth Avenue Cinemas and the Cinemark Tinseltown
In The Trotsky, Jay Baruchel, the skinny kid from Tropic Thunder and Knocked Up, plays a Montreal teen called Leon Bronstein. The mere fact that his birth name is the same as Leon Trotsky's has convinced him that he is the Westmount-born reincarnation of the famed Bolshevik leader. In fact, Leon believes he must reenact all the key stages of Trotsky's life, right down to marriage, exile, and assassination—“hopefully somewhere warm”, he writes on a giant flow chart that no one in his family appears to have noticed.
Watch the trailer for The Trotsky.
After attempting to unionize the factory run by his wealthy father (Saul Rubinek, playing it straight), the kid is yanked out of private school. Neither Leon nor young writer-director Jacob Tierney seem to be familiar with public-school realities, sadly, since that's where the rest of the nearly two-hour film mostly resides. Although we're told that he's attending an arts school, the place is more uptight than anything John Hughes knew, the better to set up a pointless battle with the stern principal played by a gaunt-looking Colm Feore, who clearly enjoys being a snaky villain.
Also fun to watch is veteran Michael Murphy (An Unmarried Woman) as a transplanted Yank law professor whom Leon badgers to take up his alleged cause. Far less enjoyable is Emily Hampshire as whiny grad student Alexandra—the same name as Trotsky's first wife, so you know where that is going. Oddly, Hampshire resembles a young(ish) Genevií¨ve Bujold, since the latter actually shows up, as a school-board head of uncertain convictions.
At the end of this poorly lit, unfunny Canuck venture, everyone stands around praising Leon's rabble-rousing audacity. Yet no one questions how “progressive” it is to simply imitate the outlines of a life you admire. And, not to be too picky, the first one really didn't turn out that well, did it?
Comments
6 Comments
Sheepnoir
May 14, 2010 at 8:49am
Saw this film at the Whistler Film festival. it was excellent. Sweet comedic tone with great pacing and excellent performances. Colm Feore is one of my all time favorite actors and he does not disappoint here. How Tierney is able to shoehorn the history of an iconic figure into a high school farce is beyond me - but it works! The film never looses your interest and keep you laughing throughout. I don't know why Ken refuses to like Canadian films? It's like he is pre-programmed. Please take Ken off reviewing Canadian fare.
Kemistry
May 18, 2010 at 3:52am
In the Ken Eisner review of The Trotsky, Ken starts off in his usual lazy recap of the movie adding very little thoughtful or meaningful praise OR critisim and as usual, ends with paragraph that comes out of left field which he may believe, gives him the appearance of being a clever critic but really just exposes him as a lame hack. I'd suggest taking Ken Esiner off a film. Period. Not sure how this guy got into film critisim... Time for the GS to step up and hire a decent film critic.
Dude
May 18, 2010 at 10:21pm
Does anybody at the Straight know how to write?
DJ Hans Lucas
May 19, 2010 at 9:23pm
I think this review is spot on. It's a quirky comedy that's 112 minutes. It should have been 92 minutes and removed the romantic subplot as much as possible. I mean that scene where Emily Hampshire discovers that she is in love with the stalker kid 10 years her junior while out with her girlfriends listening to a bad folksinger is one of the worst things I've ever seen on film.
GUy
Jun 29, 2010 at 10:24am
This movie was pretty good but it was a bit all over the place, and unabashedly pro-union without really exploring the other side of unions, as in the extortionist criminal gangs they have become. Believe it or not I am pro-union, but this movie was just blindly so.
Other than that it moves a little fast early on but there are some memorable moments (Are you my Stalin, Dwight?) and overall it is a very funny smart film. And I agree with the reviewer re: the public school perspective, public schools do not look nice. I went to a private school for two years and it wasn't as nice as that school.
John Richmond
Mar 17, 2011 at 7:57pm
I watched this film and waited for it be funny, and waited, and waited....until my partner asked, "why are we watching this crap?" I think the point was to make teenage rebellion look like a stupid, demented, waste of time. Don't worry, this is North America, that is the status quo.