I first encountered Xavier Dolan at SIFF (Seattle International Film Festival) in 2009. His first film, I Killed My Mother was playing and the blurb in the guide intrigued us. Films at SIFF are always a mixed bag, you don't know if you are going to check out a masterpiece or basically the most cliched indie you have ever seen. In the case of I Killed my Mother we saw an audacious debut by a 17(!) year old director. I was smitten, I loved Dolan's brash yet lush style and found the depiction of a teenager who loved his mother but also couldn't stand her realistic and moving. Since then I have followed Dolan's career closely, and have generally enjoyed his follow up films. But nothing has quite lived up to that debut.
That is until I finally checked out his 2014 film Mommy. Starring Dolan regulars, Anne Dorval and Suzanne Clement, Mommy tells the story of Steve (Antoine-Olivier Pilon), a rebellious, possibly dangerous teenager who after nearly killing a boy at some kind of boarding school is discharged to the care of his mother, Die (Dorval). They both befriend their neighbor, Kyla (Clement), a former teacher who has developed a condition where she is unable to speak without a debilitating stutter. The film begins with an epigraph telling us that the film is set in a fictional Canada where if a parent is unable to care for their child they can be involuntarily committed to a state run mental hospital. Let’s just say once those words come on screen you pretty much know where this is going. But, wow, the journey there is more exhilarating and devastating that I even imagined. 
Mommy is operatic, charismatic and almost schizophrenic much like Steve, a live wire of unbridled emotion. When we first meet Steve, we are terrified because of the things his mother and his counselor have said about him in the opening scene of the film. But, when we meet him he seems just like an overgrown kid, scared, funny, charismatic. It isn’t until later that we discover his true potential for danger. Quickly the situation escalates with Steve nearly fighting with a black cab driver over his racist comments. Pilot and Dorval have a natural chemistry that tows the line perfectly between loving and creepy. At times Di seems more like a friend then a parent, desperately trying to relate to Steve but also intensely worried about him and frightened of him. Eventually Steve and Die get into an incredibly terrifying, violent fight and Diane has to barricade herself in the basement. After she gets the courage to emerge, she finds Steve in the garage with Kyla tending to his wounds. Kyla is reluctant to get involved with the family but once she does, she is able to bring stability and hope to Di and Steve’s home. Again, her relationship with them is ambiguous, we see the flicker of romantic feelings between Steve and her but Dolan is clever enough to never follow up on that, instead keeping the relationship caring and loving with a hint of something more. This paradise they have found in one another is unsustainable and eventually we learn that Steve and Die can’t escape their past actions. Fate has been barreling towards them all along, they were just too busy to notice. 
Dolan has always been an incredibly flamboyant filmmaker and Mommy is no different. Mommy is presented in a 1:1 ratio, what that means is that for nearly all of the film, the picture is a small square in the middle.. The effect is divisive and challenging to the viewer but I quickly got used to it and found that it was able to highlight the way the characters feel trapped in their lives. Perhaps the single most euphoric moment of the movie is when Steve, finally feeling happy and free, pushes the aspect ratio out with his arms and the glorious full screen envelops the scene. It feels like you have been holding your breath and you can finally breathe, the viewer feels the same dizzy happiness that Steve feels in that moment, quite simply it is one of the most stunning filmmaking sequences of the last decade. Moments later, Di receives news that will alter their lives forever and begins to put in motion the inevitable fate we have been anticipating since that opening epigraph. Music also plays a huge part in the production and emotion of the film, something that Dolan has excelled at since the beginning. From the Celine Dion dance sequence where we see Kyla beginning to open up to Oasis’ “Wonderwall” playing during the shift in aspect ratio, Dolan makes the music so inextricably linked to the scenes that you cannot separate them in your mind.
Mommy is the kind of movie that overwhelms you with emotion, the performances are big but hold back just enough to be the best kind of melodrama, there are fights, attempted suicide, incredible fantasy sequences and total heartbreak. Dolan’s films are never the kind you can be ambivalent about, he wants you to be screaming and crying and laughing just like the characters. And with Mommy, you do. Mommy should be a dour film in so many ways, that epigraph warns us exactly what will happen and we know the film is leading to tragedy for this family. But instead of tragedy, we see joy, instead of death, there is life, instead of the world closing in on us, it opens gloriously.
Julie
Julie
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