Movie review: Columbarium

Columbarium

4 stars

Starring: David Boutin, Maxime Dumontier, Pierre Collin

Directed by: Steve Kerr

Running time: 86 minutes

Parental guidance: disturbing, adult themes.

Opens Friday, Nov. 9 in French at: Beaubien, Boucherville, Longueuil, Pont Viau and Quartier Latin cinemas.

Montreal filmmaker Steve Kerr had me at hello.

The very first scene of Columbarium, his disturbing, ultra-dark first feature, is a remarkable bit of work that somehow makes us feel deeply uneasy watching a guy brush his teeth. Kerr uses extreme close-ups to bring us virtually right inside the man?s mouth, and makes this morning routine seem like the scariest thing in the world.

The guy scrubbing his teeth is Mathieu ? played with eye-popping intensity by David Boutin ? a Wall Street financial whiz who is feeling the effects of the financial crisis like everyone else in his business in the summer of 2008. The tension is high in that scene and never lets up until the final credits roll an hour-and-a-half later.

Mathieu is heading back home to Montreal to meet up with his half-brother Simon (Maxime Dumontier), so that they can head out to their family cottage at an isolated lake to fulfill the last wishes of their dad, who has just died under mysterious circumstances. Once there, they meet up with their father?s old pal Marcel (Pierre Collin, just perfect), who tells them they have to spend a week at the cottage building a wood columbarium to house the vase containing their father?s ashes.

The deal is they have seven days to build the structure, and they?re not allowed to leave the property during that time. So they?re out of all contact with civilization ? no cellphone service, no neighbours, just the two brothers sweating it out together. It soon becomes clear that Mathieu is a little unhinged, and it just gets worse as the days go on.

Relations are strained between Mathieu and Simon. At the start, there?s just a cool snappiness between them, but soon the sibling rivalry goes downright nuclear. Both actors do torment just fine, but Boutin is the standout here, making us totally believe Mathieu?s descent into emotional hell.

In some ways, Columbarium is a classic riff on those guys-go-nuts-in-isolated-places movies ? there?s a dash of The Shining, for sure ? but it also has echoes of the great Brian De Palma horror films from the ?70s. There?s a neat religious subtext, as Mathieu is pointed in the direction of readings from the Book of Matthew in the New Testament, often about having to make a choice between serving God or serving the god of money.

Kerr and cinematographer Jean-Philippe Pariseau also do a super job of shooting an idyllic country setting and making it seem astonishingly menacing. Kerr keeps you on edge at every moment with the oppressive tension.

It?s worth underlining that this smart little movie was made with a mini-budget (even by Quebec standards) and didn?t receive any significant support from the public film-funding agencies. This is real indie filmmaking, and maybe that accounts for part of Columbarium?s freshness. It doesn?t have the feel of having been moulded and folded by dozens of public-agency committees. It feels real ? and weird. And that?s a good thing.

Source: http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/movie-guide/Movie+review+Columbarium/7519051/story.html

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