The Barbarian Invasions: Movie & DVD Review

(Originally published Nov. 21, 2003)

Denys Arcand’s “The Barbarian Invasions” is a sequel to his 1986 film “The Decline of the American Empire,” a modest hit that shook up the mid-‘80s by featuring a group of friends talking freely and frankly about their kinky sexual exploits, most of which were shared with each other.

Together and apart, they discussed the highs and lows of their sex lives, cutting to the chase with a fierce wit that made the film’s most obvious contemporary, 1983’s “The Big Chill,” look like amateur hour.

Upon its release, “Empire” was something of a shock—and a welcome one at that--with audiences responding as much to its prickly characters as to their sharp, intellectual banter.

But now, with the characters having aged nearly 20 years, the spry verbal dance that once defined them has become a waltz, with the 63-year-old Arcand, who wrote the script, no longer as interested in the sex talk as he is in the process of dying.

Nominated this Sunday for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, “Invasions” is set in Quebec, where the healthcare system, according to Arcand, is less than desirable. It follows “Empire’s” original cast as they review their friendships and love affairs over the deathbed of former college professor Remy (Remy Girard), the difficult patriarch of a splintered family whose younger days were spent cheating on his former wife, Louise (Dorothy Berryman).

The most important relationship of his life is the relationship he never had—the one with his estranged son, Sebastien (Stephane Rousseau), a wealthy investment capitalist who is his father’s polar opposite, so much so that Sebastian has allegedly never read a book, much to his father’s embarrassment and chagrin.

Together, Sebastien and Remy are poison; they wrinkle the screen. But when Sebastien learns that his father’s cancer is indeed terminal and that he is in deep physical pain, he rises to the occasion and does what he does best: He negotiates a better end for the man, pulling out his cell phone and his laptop computer, and using his business acumen to find the proper help. Even if it’s illegal.

The title of the film is twofold, recalling the cancer bombarding Remy’s system and the terrorist attacks against our country, both of which have left Remy and his friends scarred but also emotionally stronger. Indeed, even in the face of death, these friends are survivors, perhaps more eager now to share a laugh than they were when the world slipped away from them, stealing with it Remy’s health.

The film’s emotional ending is deeply felt and powerful, working as well as it does because Arcand doesn’t go too far. He examines the pain and the humor of life, but he doesn’t betray either with pathos or melodrama. As such, his film resonates and lingers.

Look for it to win the Academy Award.

Grade: A

(Note: It did win the award.)