DIRECTED BY

Patricia Rozema

STARRING

Sheila McCarthy

Paule Baillargeon

Ann-Marie MacDonald

Richard Monette

Warning: Spoiler in Second Paragraph
Here we have a perfect example of one of the very few entirely Canadian-made films that have achieved both international acclaim and international success. The Ontario-born Patricia Rozema made this perceptive little art-house drama/comedy back in the late 1980s; essentially, it�s a film about art and the false idolizations that may arise from appreciating it. Specifically, it�s about the wondrous fantasies; the euphoria; the inspiration, but it�s also about the emotional traumas; the heartaches; and the disappointments that art can evoke within a human being. In this case, that human being is Polly � an impressionable, wayward, confused, timid, and relatively modest young woman with an extremely private ambition to create great art.

The film does have a very 1980s aura about it, with clanging and oftentimes distracting pop tunes playing on the soundtrack. I think the ending probably should have been done in another way � the sudden reconciliation between Polly and Gabrielle takes away from the potentially greater emotional impact that the film could�ve had; it seems as if Rozema too hastily decided to create a happy ending.

The symbolism/dream imagery is very well done here � particularly during the film�s definitive sequence, when we see Polly struggling to ascend a skyscraper, getting so high and then falling down, only to find herself redeemed and soaring through the air. Polly merely had to attempt to scale lofty heights in order to get rewarded, and that�s actually what Polly does throughout real life � she attempts, even though she rarely gets recognition.

- Grant Patten