My Review of Tom At The Farm (2013)

 

Written by Xavier Dolan And Michel Marc Bouchard

Directed by Xavier Dolan 

Tom: "Today a part of me has died and I cannot cry. For I've forgotten all synonyms for "sadness". Now all I can do without you is replace you."

So far I've seen with this director movies about complicated relationships with mothers, friends competing for the same guy and a man coming to terms with being trans. Now, it's time for something a bit close to a horror movie.

The titular Tom Podowski, played by Xavier Dolan (who sat out acting in the previous movie) opened this movie by grieving the loss of his boyfriend, Guillaume Longchamp (Caleb Landry Jones). He's got a nice speech and he's about to meet his deceased boyfriend's family for the first time.

On the plus side, while she's either genuinely unaware or in denial about her dead son's sexuality, I do think Agathe (Lise Roy) was presented as a sympathetic character. She was genuinely grief stricken about Guillaume's death, though often abusive towards older son, Francis (Pierre-Yves Cardinal).

Francis was a fascinating character to watch. He's introduced by terrorising Tom into keeping quiet about the extent of his relationship with Guillaume and seemed to take a rather sadistic delight in terrorising Tom throughout the movie. He also came across as rather possessive of Tom too.

Francis definitely envied the freedom that Guillaume had and wanted nothing more to sell the farm and be rid of his mother. Then there was the addition of Tom's co-worker, Sarah Thibault (Evelyne Brochu), who Agathe believed was Guillaume's girlfriend. That certainly complicated matters with Sarah giving Tom some harsh truths about Guillaume.

Tom spent a lot of this movie being passive to Francis's erratic whims but the moment he got a history lesson from that barman (Manuel Tadros), he did the sensible thing and actually got the hell away from that farm of the damned. Needless to say that Francis didn't handle it well.

- Sarah told Tom she slept with Guillaume and it seemed like she did the same with Francis before getting her bus. She didn't smoke or seemed to like pasta.

- Agathe definitely had to be aware of Francis being a violent closet case. The barman told Tom about a former lover of Guillaume's that Francis badly assaulted.

- Standout music: Corey Hart's Sunglasses At Night and Rufus Wainwright's Going To A Town.

- Chronology: Set during October on that farm from hell. Tom's from Montreal and the farm was in a rural community in Quebec.

Tom At The Farm delved a little into horror (a point was made twice about corn fields) but was largely psychological. Francis and his fixation on Tom really drove the narrative here. It's a fascinating study of two very different men and the lives they have. 

Rating: 8 out of 10