Preview
THE EVENT
Starring Don McKellar, Sarah Polley and Parker Posey
Directed by Thom Fitgerald
Opens Friday, October 17
Director Thom Fitzgerald (The Hanging Garden, Beefcake, The Wild Dogs) has a power to make the absurdities of family dynamics, life and death shine in his films, but in his latest release he also displays an emerging talent for making location a vital element of the film
The Event makes political issues personal through the portrayal of one man’s death by assisted suicide. The added dimension of place – and Fitzgerald’s interpretation of it – is as much a reason for the film’s ability to affect the audience as the actors’ performances.
The event referred to in the title is a party thrown by Matt Shapiro (Don McKellar) to mark his own passing by assisted suicide. Both the suicide and the moments leading up to it, starting with Matt’s decision to end his life before the ravages of AIDS overcome him, are told through a series of flashbacks from the viewpoint of Matt’s friends and family. Don McKellar rises to the challenge of cobbling a cohesive character together from these varied viewpoints – a feat Fitzgerald says he has great admiration for.
"I can’t imagine a greater hurdle for an actor, to only exist in flashbacks, in other characters’ recollection," Fitzgerald says. "To be able to imbue all those discussions about death with enough personality to make you understand who he was before he got sick – he’s a hard working guy."
In its flashback structure, the story winds back and forth as members of the disparate group that Matt touched deal with their feelings toward losing their friend and helping grant his final wish. Their reasons for telling their stories complicate their grief. Nicole DeVivo, (an unusually irony-free Parker Posey) is an assistant district attorney investigating the suspicious nature of Matt’s death. In her investigation, she talks to Matt’s mother Lila (an amazing Olympia Dukakis) and sister Dana (Sarah Polley), who defend Matt’s wishes, and many other friends who struggle with their actions and emotions. During the investigation, unlikely groups find themselves brought together, inciting a few great one-liners ("Never fuck with a drag queen!").
The disparity of Matt’s milieu is also brought into relief at his going-away party, where Lila Shapiro amicably nibbles appetizers offered by a burly drag queen. This is not by any means an original scene, but it is an important point to make – death and dying affect everyone, and assisted suicide is a real issue that is sometimes unwillingly faced in the process.
Facilitating this idea required a location that can be seen as a microcosm for the world.
"New York is important to the story because of the volume of different kinds of people that had so much in common in the story," Fitzgerald says. "An assistant DA from Little Italy and Jewish Housewife from Rutherford had a lot in common. Those are the odds in Manhattan. That that circle could be such a hodgepodge. It’s so real in New York. It’s not so real in Halifax."
The particular time of the filming and the loss and vulnerability echoing through the streets also loaned another dimension to the plot. It was the first film to be shot in New York after 9/11.
"It was five months after. Half a year and not a feature filmed in New York," marvels Fitzgerald. "The city was thrilled and grateful that we had come to shoot. September 11 was just everywhere. Wherever I turned my camera there were flags. Me and the cinematographer were the only guests at the hotel that didn’t return at the end of the day wearing a big yellow suit covered in debris.
"It wasn’t the kind of movie where I had the resources to pretend that it didn’t happen. But it felt honest to me. New York was draped in sorrow and the experience was draped in that sorrow."
The city becomes a character in the story through Fitzgerald’s esoteric sensibility. For instance, the cataclysm of 9/11 is shown gently, as a slow dissolve of the towers from the skyline. When Matt’s closest friend and champion, Brian (Brent Carver), runs away after his interrogation by the assistant district attorney, he sees a similar dissolve, this time of the AIDS-stricken residents fading away.
There is reason to place the film in such a specific time in history. Fitzgerald feels strongly about the issues he presents in The Event.
"I look forward to it becoming a period piece," he says. "Five, maybe 10 years from now, I can imagine us saying, ‘Remember before there was the AIDS vaccine, remember when assisted suicide was illegal.’"
The direction, cinematography, performances and the presence of the city in its specific time in history work together to give this film its power, humour and pathos. As he did to a smaller degree with Bucharest in The Wild Dogs, Fitzgerald shows he can glean an emotional and even personal performance from the mean streets of New York. Along with Olympia Dukakis’s likely Oscar nomination, maybe a new category should be established at this year’s Academy Awards: best dramatic performance by a city. |
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