C.R.A.Z.Y.
There are five boys in the Beaulieu family -- Christian, Raymond, Antoine, Zachary and Yvan. But Zac (played by Emile Vallee and Marc-Andre Grondin) is the only one who's gay. That's why growing up in Montreal alongside his heterosexual brothers and his strict, emotionally distant father (Michel Cote) proves especially challenging for the blossoming outsider, who finds solace in the music of Pink Floyd, the Rolling Stones and David Bowie.
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» Reviewed by 2 people
This past week was the Maine International Film Festival in Waterville and the winner of the Audience Favorite Award was the 2005 Québécois film C.R.A.Z.Y. This film follows the story of a middle(-ish) child boy in a family of five sons growing up in the 60s and 70s. From the outset we follow how the protaganist, Zac, differs from his brothers, eventually stumbling upon the truth of the matter in one young instant when he's found dressing in his mother's clothes and jewelry: he was, as his father would warn him not to be, a "fife." From that point on we watch Zac's slow and unwilling embrace of his sexual identity, its strain on his relationships with his family and his father in particular. This movie was technically excellent. The characters, while not all developed on camera, behaved as though they had truly evolved while off-camera. You really grew to sympathize with the predicament in which Zac saw himself. And perhaps most vital to the believability of the film is that, instead of hating the father, you longed for him to accept Zac as he was. However C.R.A.Z.Y. just didn't catch me on fire. Remembering that it is not biographical, it is fair to point out that the story of finding one's self, including sexually, despite the admonition of one's family is a well told story by now. The movie Boulay gives us would have served superbly as the backdrop to an incredibly colorful story had it followed a single consistent tale within Zac's life. Instead it felt rather distracted as we watched disconnected episodes of his life, and his view of his family members' lives, strung together only by the common thread of his awkwardness. In the end, it was well told, but hardly a tale.- Joe Theriault
It was interesting watching the dynamics of this family unfold. I don't think the family was any more dysfunctional than "normal" families but then again I think all families tend to be dysfunctional at times, and what is normal anyway? I loved the mother's role the most, how she was the stablizing force, or humanizing glue that kept all them boys from killing each other, and she was funny as hell in a subtle kind of way. The movie showed how this one family was able to overcome their homophobia, shown most entrenched in the father, and still love each other. I did think it was rather long, felt some scenes could have been cut with no loss in the movement of the plot. The funniest scene occurred at the very beginning, when the parents were introducing the new baby, the main character in the movie, to his brothers. I thought I would bust my ribs and it still makes me laugh out loud every time I think of it. Classic! I almost gave it 4 stars but it did not quite get there. It felt like a TV ministries- not necessarily a bad thing, just not enough dramatic energy for what I'd rate a solid 4 star show.
- VJ Purplequeen