>>REVIEW
FIDO
STARRING Carrie-Anne Moss and Billy Connolly
DIRECTED BY Andrew Currie
Opens Friday, March 16
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"What is that damn zombie doing in my EZ boy?"
Such statements abound in the meticulously envisioned retro-world of Canadian filmmaker Andrew Currie’s (Mile Zero) zombie dramady, which falls somewhere amidst the realities of Leave it to Beaver, Lassie Come Home and All That Heaven Allows – and oh, how wry it is.
Starring Billy Connolly and Carrie-Anne Moss, this "period" piece is set sometime after the great "zombie wars" (earth passed through a cloud of space dust that re-animated the dead), as mega-corporation ZomCom rules profitably by enforcing normality with high-security communities and a neck bracelet that pacifies zombies into servants and day labourers for the wealthy.
It is a world where only the few can afford funerals to ensure their loved ones stay underground, where the sick and elderly are deemed security risks and intimate relationships are risky business (because you never know when you might have to pop a cap in a loved one’s head). But, ultimately, it is the tender story of one boy and his zombie and how their love could change it all.
While Connolly shines as the lethargic zombie with a dull sense of compassion and a strong supporting cast of veteran character actors appear to delight in the script’s campy fun (including Tim Blake Nelson as the neighbour with a questionable relationship to his own freshly preserved zombie-vixen), the real stars of this flick are the craftsmen behind the camera.
A scope picture, Fido is framed with beautiful, wide compositions as cinematographer Jan Kiesser deftly combines lyrical crane shots and a limited colour palette to help create the perfect Technicolor nightmare, giving the film a polished look seldom seen through a Canadian lens. There’s also the layered, cross-genre script (co-written by Currie, Robert Chomiak and Dennis Heaton), which blends tones of camp, dark humour, drama and sardonic wit so effectively it could be a case study for marketing majors. Currie’s film-savvy direction offers up enough iconic imagery and subtle homage to appease even the hungriest cinephiles.
Despite its strengths, some will argue a tighter, more focused script with a sharper satirical edge might have better serviced the film’s irreverent appeal to indie film crowds. But it is more than just a one-note tune. It is as much a consideration of the human drama as it is a timeless send-up of it.
Fido may not bite hard, but it does bite. Stabs at government plutocracy, the post-9-11 politics of fear, U.S. immigration policies and the Bush Administration in general, along with a brilliant send-up of the forced idealism of 1950s suburbia, should easily secure the film a strong following abroad. Domestic success, however, will likely rest on a delicate marketing strategy that preps audiences for a zombie film that is not a horror movie and much more than just satire.
Fido uses broad, opulent strokes liberally dipped in irony to create a deeply textured film that is for film lovers. |
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