The Rocket

Starring Roy Dupuis and Patrice Robitaille. In French and English with English subtitles. Rated PG. Opens Friday, April 21, at the Fifth Avenue Theatres

English-speaking viewers mostly know the smouldering solemnity of Roy Dupuis from the TV version of La Femme Nikita and sporadically released Quebec efforts like Being at Home With Claude and Mémoires Affectives. Dupuis's taciturn, almost opaque, appeal is tied to a higher purpose in The Rocket, an enlightening look at hockey icon Maurice Richard, who brought hockey-and French- Canadian aspirations-to the world stage in the 1940s and '50s.

The film starts in the 1930s with a young Richard yearning for a life beyond the factories of working-class Montreal. He finds this with his obsessive love of hockey and the persistent affections of cute neighbour Lucille, eventually played by Julie LeBreton.

Their courtship and marriage are depicted as relatively conflict-free; in fact, we could have been given at least a hint as to what Lucille was made of, aside from being a selfless helpmate to the quiet hockey great. The only family drama on display, aside from he'll-never-amount-to-anything resistance from her father, involves Maurice's rather diffident treatment of Lucille's goofy brother (Patrice Robitaille, who played LeBreton's neurotic boyfriend in Québec-Montréal), still literally stuck in the Forum's cheap seats long after Richard ascends to NHL Valhalla.

It's not clear whether the superstar doesn't give a puck about his brother-in-law or if he's just embarrassed to ask for favours for him-although the latter theory fits well with his hesitation to exploit fame to advance the initially mild-mannered cause of French- Canadian self-determination.

That theme is made clear in the way bosses of a team called the Canadiens always speak English while the players use their own language when no authority figure is watching-something noted by more socially minded athletes like Hector "Toe" Blake (Randy Thomas) and Elmer Lach (Mike Ricci, one of several actual NHL pros in supporting roles here).

The honchos, meanwhile, include NHL chief Clarence Campbell (Tedd Dillon), whose 1955 suspension of Richard led to riots in Montreal, and hard-ass coach Dick Irvin (Stephen McHattie), who recognized Richard's artistry-something captured well in the extended arena scenes.

Director Charles Binamé, better known for loosely made contemporary ensemble work, as in Eldorado, has a firm hand on the period detail here. The art direction never obscures the grit of the story, which is essentially one of transcendent willpower in the face of brutality. We never quite discover what makes the Rocket soar-he was an inarticulate man who may never have possessed much self-knowledge-and I'm not sure that Rémy Girard's wise barber, an iffy Greek-chorus gimmick from screenwriter Ken Scott, is sufficient to convey the soul of French Canada. But the movie manages to get across a lot more than a battle between men on ice.

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