DEATH OF A LADIES’ MAN

Canada/Ireland, 2020, 100 minutes, Colour.

Gabriel Byrne, Jessica Pare, Brian Gleeson, Antoine Olivier Pilon, Karelle Tremblay, Pascal Bussieres, Joel Bissonette.

Directed by Matthew Bissonette.

To appreciate the intentions of this challengingly-named film, it is best to bypass any expectations of close-ups of a ladies’ man and to focus on the theme of death. Death is certainly at the centre of the story – although, in this process of death, of a man being able to go back through his life, the people in his life, the events of his life, his successes and, with greater emphasis, his failures, it could be likened to some kind of “Purgatory of a Ladies’ Man”. (This kind of Purgatory/Death experience is a theme that was explored in its exciting Pixar way in the Oscar-winning Soul.)

The storytelling here is quite stylised, divided into three chapters, focusing on Samuel and the way that he is hooked throughout his life, and a chapter on his travels and writing, and a final chapter bringing all the themes together.

And, the storytelling is particularly stylised in so far as it moves from realistic narrative into what is sometimes called “magic realism”, what seems to be ordinary but events and, here, particularly characters, real and fictional, appear and disappear in Samuel’s life. (He is also diagnosed as having a tumour on the brain.)

The trouble with this kind of central character is that, despite some past Irish charm, he is not particularly likeable – and doesn’t go out of his way to make himself more likeable (except to the end when he is moving towards, we hope, some kind of redemption). His played by Gabriel Byrne, himself an Irishman, long-time resident in the US, but playing an Irish character who has settled in Canada. He tells us that he is 64. A bit late for a midlife crisis – a pre-old ageing crisis, perhaps.

We are suddenly introduced to Samuel and his sometimes hectic life, discovering his wife’s infidelity and demanding a divorce, hurrying to see his son (who announces that he is probably in love and definitely gay) who is also a hockey player. And then, the magical realism really starts, Samuel watching the hockey players line up and then move into dancing routines, balletic on their skates, figure dancing. This kind of hallucinatory experience becomes more frequent, even in the middle of lecturing when he hears one of the students give a spiel when he is simply being matter-of-fact.

Samuel goes to see his daughter rehearsing an avant guard play (and she and her boyfriend on drugs). There is his ex-wife who is going to marry again. There is his university colleague to whom he confides that he would like to write a book. Samuel is a drinker, has had affairs, is not particularly reputable.

But the key thing is, his father keeps entering his life, the younger version of his father, and they reminisce, discuss the past, his mother, his growing up, the father concerned about his son and critical.

So, where can this go? Answer, Part two, to Ireland! He goes back to his old house, finds his father there, settles in quite nicely. At the local store he discovers a young woman who has come from Montréal to look after her sick mother. They are attracted, begin an affair, have happy conversations with the mother. But, there is a jealous man in the background, who threatens, shoots through a window, pursues the running couple in his car, hits a rock and he and the car are catapulted over the cliff. Is Samuel coming to terms with his life or not? His daughter turns up – sees what is happening (or, rather, cannot see what is happening in his hallucinations).

There is some hope for Samuel, frank AA meeting, Samuel telling his story, especially about his concern with his daughter’s addiction and health, and, as they proceed to the church, this particular gathering turns into a song and dance routine. It looks as though there could be some happy ending despite the fact that Samuel is diagnosed terminally.

Since everything has been unpredictable, we find that the ending is also unpredictable, not without some hope, not without some final self-awareness on Samuel’s part. The death of the ladies’ man is not quite what we anticipated.

What makes this story even more distinctive is that especially in three episodes, that Leonard Cohen’s songs are used to dramatic effect, especially Hallelujah after the AA meeting and Did I Ever Love You..

1. The importance of the title and the focus on death? Samuel alive, reputation as a ladies’ man, his two wives, his affairs?’ But, his imminent death, his death experiences, hallucinations? A kind of purgatorial experience before his actual death?
2. Canadian- Irish production, sequences in the city of Montréal, homes and streets, the sites of Montréal, universities, pubs…? The contrast with Ireland, the vast countryside, the coast, the cottage on the rocks, the town and shops? The musical score? The range of classics?
3. The Leonard Cohen songs and their place, at the dance, at the AA, at the death?
4. The three chapters of the screenplay, the hook and the worm, the man and his trip writing the book, bringing the themes to a close?
5. The realism of the story, the portrait of Samuel, his family, his work, his health? His age, ambitions? The doctor, his health, the tumour and its effects? The desire to write a book? The visit to Ireland, his home? The return to Canada, AA meetings? The book and the achievement?
6. The “magic realism” of the story? How much of the whole film was in Samuel’s imagination? The increasing number of hallucinations, in the classroom and what the student said and what he imagined, the episode with Frankenstein? The encounters with his father, enabling him to go back to the past, his appreciation of his father, their Frank talking with each other, his father continually appearing, in Montréal, in Ireland? At the book signing? Everyone there, including Frankenstein? At death and after death?
7. Samuel, the opening with the taxi driver, the speed, the wallet, discovering his wife with a lover, ousting him, the confrontation? The divorce? His previous marriage, the divorce? Meeting with his son, in love and gay, the hockey match? And its turning into a musical number, the rhythms, the dancing? His going to see his daughter, the bizarre avant-guard play, the meal with her, his discussions with his children about his qualities as a father?Her drugs?
8. His work, lecturing, the hallucinations, being sick? His academic friend and their discussions? His friend lecturing for him?
9. With his wife, concern about their children, her marrying again, his kissing her, her slapping him? The tension between the two? The scene of the Christmas dinner, everybody together? Samuel absent and the tension?
10. Samuel, the flight to Ireland, the home, setting it up, his father at home, the meals, the fire, the conversation? Going to the shop, the encounter with Charlotte? The banter, his return, the relationship, the affair? The local, confronting him, Samuel attacking him, the shots through the window? Charlotte and Samuel running to the cliff, the pursuit, the car hitting the rock and going over the cliff? Charlotte and her story, Montréal, modelling, her Irish mother, going to visit, the chat and comparing of ages and relationships with Charlotte’s mother?
11. Samuel at home, his daughter visiting him, his looking dishevelled, talking about his father and Charlotte, his daughter not seeing them?
12. The return to Canada, going to the AA meetings, the frank talk, Samuel and the flashbacks of his daughter, her boyfriend (with whom he had discussions at the nightclub and afterwards on the water), heroin, her drugs, rescuing her, the hospital? The group and their testimony, processing, everybody dancing? His relationship with his son?
13. Completing the book, the publication, the book signing, his reading, the focus on his father? Everybody at the signing, his children and their pride, his son and his boyfriend, his former wife? And his father at the back?
14. The unexpected climax, Samuel going to the street with his father, his daughter’s boyfriend, the drugs, attacking him, accusing him of stealing the story, killing him? The family coming out, distraught?
15. Samuel, walking with his father, discussing the nature of death, the experience of death, leading to…?
16. The successful blend of fantasy and reality? The meaning of death?