Review: Canary (2009)

[Steve Rhodes]

CANARY
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2009 Steve Rhodes

RATING (0 TO ****):  * 1/2

After watching CANARY, I think my mind may have exploded, since it was so 
purposely obscure.  Since the film is about organ harvesting and selling, 
maybe I can put my order in for a new brain, since the film short-circuited 
my current one.

Writer and director Alejandro Adams, whose first film was the imaginatively 
constructed but challenging AROUND THE BAY, comes up with a second film, 
CANARY, that's a couple of orders of magnitude even less user friendly.

As Adams drops us, without explanation, into some story in progress, we sit 
completely baffled as the first ten minutes is a very talkative narrative, 
all in some foreign language.  As we were told before the screening, the 
movie, by design, has no subtitles.

We finally get to scenes with people speaking a language that we understand, 
but the story itself doesn't become much clearer.  It is as if Adams, a very 
talented filmmaker whom I've talked with many times, wants to specialize in 
films that no one can figure out.

To be fair, however, CANARY does eventually explain enough so that, at least 
on an outline level, we can comprehend the story.  Canary Industries is in 
the organ business.  With a friendly looking heart logo, the company 
encourages parents to have a Canary representative present at the birth of 
their babies so that the babies can have all of their organs registered. 
After all, there is a ten percent chance, they are told, that one of the 
baby's organs could fail later, making them a potential client of Canary 
Industries.

A mysterious woman named Carla, played with a child-like innocence by Carla 
Pauli, is seen frequently, as she surreptitiously steals people's organs and 
puts them in a Canary Industries' box.  Carla never speaks, so far as I can 
remember.

The movie is constructed of several long vignettes of various people. 
Typical of these is one that seems to go on literally forever, as a young 
mother argues back and forth with a kindergarten teacher over whether the 
mild behavioral problems of her child mean anything.  Like most scenes in 
the movie, you find yourself wondering what in the world it has to do with 
the rest of the movie and whether the scene will ever end.

This very slow and off-putting film had a lot of people walking out at my 
screening, which started out quite full but was much less so by the end.

I think Adams is quite talented, but, if he continues on his current path, 
his films could soon be unwatchable.  The phrase "too smart for his own 
good" kept running through my mind afterwards.  I really hope Adams can 
successfully switch gears and learn to apply his skills and produce more 
digestible products.

CANARY runs 1:31. The film is in English, Russian, German and Vietnamese.

The film is being shown as part of San Jose's Cinequest Film Festival 
(www.Cinequest.org), which runs February 25-March 8, 2009.

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