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A Haphazard Thriller With Some Things on its Mind


I really wish that Through Black Spruce came together better than it does. There’s a genuinely compelling thriller and incredibly thoughtful commentary within this movie adaptation of Joseph Boyden’s 2008 novel. It’s an immensely socially relevant piece too, and powerfully delivers on that in some key regards. But it’s also a little frustrating, incoherent, underwhelming, and perhaps most fatally, distant –never quite escaping the truth it’s another First Nations story told by white people.
Following the Bird family of Moosonee, Ontario, the story explores Anna (Tanaya Beatty) and her investigation into the disappearance of her twin sister Suzanne, a fashion model, in Toronto, while gradually coming to terms with her insecurities surrounding her sister along the way. Back home the plot also deals with her uncle Will (Brandon Oakes), his conflict with a gang of drug dealers who believe Suzanne stole a minor fortune from them and the actions their antagonism provokes from him.
The film opens in a somewhat incompetent way by showing a portion of a late scene of the story that has quite a bit of tension to it before cutting to flashback to reveal what led to it. This often tiresome cliché though comes with a brief glimpse of the outcome of the situation, stifling most of that tension for when it shows up again later. Throughout the film there are a number of these kind of odd choices that disrupt the pacing or distract the flow of the narrative, like a build up towards somebody stalking Anna that turns out just to be a friend or the occasional clumsy transitions between the two storylines. There are some odd story developments too, such as a character being built up as the major antagonist only to wind up merely being a henchman, and something that happens to him motivating a significant moral and physical journey for Will only to turn out to be completely pointless. The direction of Anna’s story even takes a couple questionable turns. And it doesn’t help that the script could be sharper, that it could better orientate the audience early on. One supporting character disappears from the story entirely without explanation.
At the same time the mystery is fairly intriguing, and Anna’s investigation is a highlight of the film. While Tanaya Beatty’s stoic, restrained, and often emotionless performance is a hindrance in a couple scenes, it’s also entirely intentional and strangely captivating. She’s enigmatic but determined and while the puzzle she pieces together isn’t unexpected, you feel the gradual influence it has on her and her complicated relationship with her much more successful sister. There are complexities to the relationships of the whole Bird family, which I’m sure the book goes into more detail in. While the Moosonee stuff is mostly generic and uninteresting, the best part of Will’s plot is a solitary hunting trip to an island somewhere in James Bay. It’s a nice picture of living wholly off the land, and while a lot of it is silent, Oakes performs it as a kind of retreat conveying heavy introspection. And it may capture better than any other movie how blisteringly annoying mosquitoes are. That being said it’s almost entirely disconnected from its parallel story and doesn’t quite suit the pacing of this movie, feeling much more like a respite episode of a serialized T.V. series. It’s this part of the movie that allows for a cameo from Tantoo Cardinal, that along with an equivalent cameo from Graham Greene, was likely included just for the name recognition.
The cultural and Indigenous content of this movie comes across mostly fine, but is a little complicated from a conceptual standpoint. Director Don McKellar is white and Joseph Boyden is, to put it mildly, a bit of a controversial figure when it comes to First Nations representation and his personal heritage. However one area where the movie seems particularly insightful and culturally cognizant is in the way it addresses and critiques the capitalization of the Indigenous image. It’s made clear that Suzanne’s modelling career is largely attributable to the fact she’s a First Nations woman -and moreover that she embodies an image of “Indigenous” that’s palatable to white consumers. At one scene at an exhibition a lecturer even inappropriately brings up the fact Suzanne’s gone missing to illustrate her interpretation that she was a symbol for missing Indigenous women –something I’m sure most models don’t like being pigeonholed as. Suzanne may be dead and her likeness is being immortalized as a tragedy without consideration for any other facet of her identity. The film does a great job commenting on those kind of improprieties towards First Nations people and culture –those well-meaning attempts to be inclusive and representational without actually making much effort to understand their world or point-of-view. It’s quite common of Canadian reconciliation practices, many of which are still being dictated by white people. And Anna’s cynical view towards them and subtle refusal to participate in any kind of homogenizing of her image really makes a good point relating their nuances.
However the climax is still terribly lame and neither story really earns their resolution. Ultimately, it leaves you feeling more than a little weary and confused. There’s real potential in Through Black Spruce, some important things being said, and even an interesting story -but this movie isn’t quite it. Still, I’m glad I saw it for the merits it does have and for the flicker it represents of an evolving film industry in Canada.

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