Canada, 2003
Director: Carl Bessai
Score: **

Emile follows director/cinematographer Carl Bessai’s third installment on the topic of identity.  His first two films, Johnny and Lola dealt with real life characters in a cinema-verite format made roughly with the Dogme rules in mind, allowing each film to demonstrate strong performances in an effective Canadian setting.

The central character this time is Emile (played by Brit. Sir Ian McKellen), returning from London to Canada, the land of his birth to receive an honorary degree from the University of Victoria.  He uses this excuse to stay with his niece Nadia (Deborah Kara Unger) and her 10-year old daughter Maria (Theo Crane).  The real secret however, is later revealed that he had hurt her deeply in the past by abandoning her when her father passed on.

Emile is hauntingly lit (by Bessai himself) in soft colors with events interchanging between past and present giving the film a lyrical/artsy look.  But director Bessai spends more time revealing the events that occurred rather than dwell on the issue of Emile’s redemption.  For example, it is through a third of the film that the viewer realizes that Emile is Nadia’s uncle.  The viewer is also led to believe that deliverance comes through the heart of Maria who eventually bonds with the older Emile.  The brash dialogue, that made Lola and Johnny more interesting and gave it a fresh and quirky feel, is noticeably missing in Emile”.  Emile looks more professionally made though, especially with McKellen in the title role.  This still does not prevent the film from sliding into predictability.