Review: Tom at the Farm (2013) - NP Approved

Cast: Xavier Dolan, Pierre-Yves Cardinal, Lise Roy
Director: Xavier Dolan
Country: Canada | France
Genre: Drama

Editor’s Note: Tom at the Farm opens theatrically in France this March. At the moment no North American release date is known. For an additional perspective on the film, please read Ronan’s review (90/100).

Xavier Dolan’s first three feature films were an exploration of impossible love. The personal, domestic drama I Killed My Mother (2009), stylized love dual Heartbeats (2009) and epic love story Laurence Anyways (2012) each focused on characters in search of mutual affection.

Xavier Dolan established himself as a filmmaker with style as well as an eye for visual flair, maturing with each film and gradually expanding his scope. The theme of impossible love is still a concern in his fourth feature film, Tom at the Farm (2014), but is very much an afterthought.

The theme of impossible love is still a concern in his fourth feature film, Tom at the Farm (2014), but is very much an afterthought.

The film is based on Michel Marc Bouchard’s play of the same name, essentially a bare bones framework for the narrative. The story centers on its title character, Tom (Xavier Dolan), who we follow into the country – quite literally – via an aerial shot of his car, where he attends the funeral of his loved one. Xavier Dolan expands on the source material here, with fully formed locations that function as characters in our story. If nowhere else in the film, it’s in these initial moments where he also displays a deep sense of maturity as storyteller. Tom quietly arrives, waits and searches for his lover’s family – it’s tense and comedic – as he falls asleep and drools on the kitchen table then subsequently introduces himself to the mother of his lover.

In switching from suspense and horror onto drama and black comedy, Xavier Dolan very delicately finds a balance with these tones. The film also depends particularly on the strong performances from its cast of actors, including Xavier Dolan himself as lead, whose bleach blonde hair is a departure from his previous autobiographical protagonists, as he sheds away his Heartbeats hipster look that has defined him for new styles, Pierre-Yves Cardinal as his lover’s domineering brother (who shares a beautifully unexpected scene with Xavier Dolan in a barn), as well as Lise Roy and Evelyne Brochu from the original play.

The film also depends particularly on the strong performances from its cast of actors, including Xavier Dolan himself as lead…

The idea of impossible love still exists, with Tom’s character and his deceased partner, and more profoundly, with his partner’s brother, Francis (Pierre-Yves Cardinal), who lacks any form of relationship with those around him.

Tom at the Farm is a much more intimate picture for Xavier Dolan. The departure in style with this film, however, is interesting – primarily because he always been interested in style, in general, in his work – and while his lovely signature style of scenes-that-play-like-music-videos is absent from this film, his experimentation of genre and his exploration of style within a genre makes this film a very welcoming turn for him.

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Armen Karaoghlanian

Staff Film Critic

Armen Karaoghlanian is the co-creator and writer of Interiors, an online film and architecture journal that focuses on the use of space in cinema. In addition, he is a Contributing Writer for ArchDaily and an Adjunct Faculty for Woodbury University. In his career, he maintains a balance between film studies and film production, as he writes for various publications while also working as an independent filmmaker.

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• Review: Tom at the Farm (2013) - NP Approved - December 25, 2013