THE HEALER
Canada, 2017, 113 minutes, Colour.
Oliver Jackson- Cohen, Jonathan Pryce, Camilla Luddington, Jorge Garcia, Adrien G.Griffiths, Kaitlyn Bernard.
Directed by Paco Arango.
At first, the title seems quite bizarre. An air pilot whose flight has been cancelled returns home and finds his wife with a local handyman. On his uniform is the title The Healer. It is also the name of the store from which he works. He has a bad reputation, not only with the ladies, but gambling and in debt to Russian thugs. He is Alec, played by Oliver Jackson -Cohen (the mysterious husband in The Invisible Man). Where is this all going?
The answer is: in mysterious directions.
Alec is summoned by a previously unknown uncle (Jonathan Pryce), with a proposal to pay his debts if he moves from London to Nova Scotia for a year – leaving in two days. Reluctant, trying to cash the ticket his uncle gives him, he eventually does arrive in Canada. He is to live in his uncle’s house. He is given a ramshackle vehicle. And he is supposed to get a job. A friendly young woman, Cecilia (Camilla Luddington) is a vet, offers him work – especially when dogs, sheep and other animals instinctively follow him. She places an ad in the paper for him and he suddenly finds clients, not for his electrical skills, but because the advertisement says that he is a healer, will heal anyone.
Thus begins a series of strange incidents for Alec, including a confrontation with the extra-large parish priest, Father Malloy (Jorge Garcia), the priest collapsing, Alec trying to revive him – but two schoolgirls on a video excursion filming it all, it’s looking as if he is murdered the priest, and the video handed into the police who arrest him.
The screenplay does not quite go in expected directions. It seems that Alec has a gift and a destiny – but, will he accept it? Will he fulfil the destiny? A teenager with cancer and insistent parents offer some kind of testing ground.
Alec is a genial person on the whole, despite his disreputable past. His uncle turns up, explains his destiny to Alec, puts the burden of decision on Alec himself.
Audiences may be able to accept the idea of the gift, healing capacities, more readily because the most sceptical person around is Alec himself.
At the end, the writer-director, Mexican Paco Arango, indicates that his concern is actually with seriously ill children. Press information provides details of the work that Arango himself as done with organisations for the seriously ill, dedicating his film to Paul Newman whom he sees as this kind of healer, especially with his devoted organisation for seriously ill children.
There is a pleasant Catholic tone about the whole thing – an enjoyable scene in a London church and a confessional, Alec taking refuge, the parish priest telling him that parable-joke about the person caught in a flood, refusing help from the police, the boat, a helicopter, drowning and then blaming God for not helping him, God explaining that he had sent all the means necessary. On that basis – Alec should go to Nova Scotia.
1. The title? Electrical jobs? The store? The partner and his giving up on Alec? The transition to Nova Scotia, the advertisement, the clients for healing, the revelation of the gift and destiny, Alex choice?
2. The London settings, the home, Alec and his work, with the women, his work, the bar, owing money, the meeting with his uncle the club, the pursuit by the criminals, the refuge in the church, confessional, the encounter with the priest? The musical score?
3. The uncle, wealthy, the invitation, the proposition, paying the debt, Alec going for a year to Canada, the risk? Alec not wanting to go, trying to cash the ticket? The impact of the priest and his story about the man asking for rescue and the appeal to God? God’s answer?
4. The Nova Scotia scenery, the town, the sea, the countryside? Homes, the vet, the church, diners? The musical score?
5. Alec, the house, the ramshackle car? The welcomed by Cecilia? The lesbian issue? the dog following him, getting a job, the sheep following, the birth of the cow and his shock?
6. The advertisement, the wording, the clients in his house, the embarrassment after the cold shower? His declaring he was unable to heal? The reaction of the possible clients?
7. At the diner, the deaf man hearing, his wife’s pain going away, the woman and her blood sugar, her fiance and his stutter? The response to Alec?
8. Father Malloy, at the church, going to see Alec, his collapse, the little girls videoing the situation, Alex thumping the priest’s chest, the wheelbarrow, the back of the truck, delivering him to the church? The police and the video? The hostile policeman – and his earlier giving Alec a ticket because of his parking and drinking? Alec being arrested, in the cell, Cecilia visiting and his resistance?
9. The local police, calling in the authorities, Father Malloy phoning, the embarrassment for the police?
10. His uncle, the basement, the pictures of the previous healers, the explanation of the gift of healing, skipping a generation, the frame for his photo? Cecilia and her family, the help of the generations? The proposition to Alec, his resistance? The time limit, midnight, his contemplating? Going to the church, everybody welcoming him? His refusing the gift – but the people still applauding? Father Malloy presiding?
11. Father Malloy’s story, his loss of faith, the death experience, regaining his faith, urging Alec into the church, but Alec having to do the praying by himself? Alec’s desperate prayer to God, shouting at God?
12. The situation with Abigail, her insistent parents, their driving? Alec and his compromise, Abigail and her vivacious attitude, her cancer? Gratitude towards her parents? Spending the weekend with Alec and Cecilia, with the animals, enjoying their company? Her philosophy of life, description of her illness? The parents happy, the return home? The policeman being her uncle, the reconciliation with Alec?
13. Alec, the experience, wanting to accept the gift, the uncle refusing? Alec finding his picture in the basement?
14. Cecilia, the uncle’s warning, her defence against Alec, yet falling in love? Abigail calling their bluff?
15. Abigail, her phone call, the remission?
16. The plausibility of the gift – or not? And the solution for everyone doing their best to help and support seriously ill children?
17. The background of the director and his charity work, the images during the final credits, the seriously ill children? The tribute to Paul Newman?
