Writer & Director: Paul Schrader
When Richard Gere’s wizened, terminally ill documentary maker, Leonard, agrees to be interviewed by his former students keen to celebrate the impact of his life, he promises revelations that even his wife sitting in the room may be unaware of. With an esteemed counter-culture reputation built on draft-dodging in the 1970s, escaping to Canada, Paul Schrader’s film spools back in time to the young Leonard revealing his true motives for crossing the Canadian border. And while his now middle-aged students remained entranced by the man and his work, the audience will discover his rather mundane revelations of standardly poor male behaviour far less exciting.
Oh Canada is a rather sedate movie, no flashy revelations, no big dramatic set-pieces and very little conflict as it follows the central character through two timelines, and its never really clear what writer-director Schrader wants the audience to take away. No one still believes that celebrities are as sanitised as their reputations suggests so discovering Leonard’s deep dark secrets are rather underwhelming nor is there much attempt to explain or understand them. Despite being played by two actors, the character remains as impenetrable and elusive at the end of the story as he was at the beginning, only he was never an interesting enough enigma to sustain the 1 hour and 30-minute running time.
So this is a film that is more about technique than what is happening on screen and even here Schrader’s conceptual approach doesn’t always help the viewer to understand why everyone cares about Leonard so much. Generally, Gere’s older Leonard casts back to his younger self played by star of the moment Jacob Elordi, but occasionally without explanation or purpose, Schrader slips Gere into Elordi’s place and plays the scene with his 1960s and 1970s cast, although Uma Thurman is permitted to play her younger self and Leonard’s contemporary wife Emma. The framing approach also switches between black and white and full colour without clear purpose, building to something but leaving the viewer a little baffled by the creative choices and what they mean, as though a coming together of ideas and story might have happened 10-minutes after the movie ends if only all involved had stuck with it.
That’s not to say there aren’t interesting things to take from the subtly of the film or the depth in the two central performances, which though dimly lit in dark wood panelled rooms, gives Gere a chance to play a confessional protagonist perhaps a little jaded by his supposed greatness and eager to reveal his true nature before his life ends. And his scenes imply a growing confusion of mind that equally undermine the narrative as his wife Emma (Thurman, wasted in a barely developed role) insists her husband is muddling things up. Is anything he says true, is that something we should be taking away from this?
Elordi matches Gere and actually finds more purpose in the earlier scenes as the young Leonard not so much building his reputation but fleeing from any kind of responsibility. Elordi is exceptionally good at tortured souls, his eyes alive with pain and rebuke, and here his younger Leonard is always compelling and charismatic despite the randomness of his decision-making and the weak connection the filmmaker creates between the two versions of Leonard.
No one is what they seem perhaps, but as you sit down to watch one of Hollywood’s most established stars and one of its rising talents, Oh Canada turns out to be not what it seems either.
Oh, Canada is on UK and Ireland digital platforms on 12 January 2026 from Blue Finch Film Releasing.
