Un parallèle plus tard (2014)

(On TV, September 2022) Dreariness and missed opportunities await viewers willing to take a chance on Un parallèle plus tard, a too-dull drama that eschews excitement in favour of navel-gazing. The story gets going once a young computer expert abruptly flees Montréal to seek refuge in his faraway hometown on La Côte Nord—it turns out that his selling information to the mafia probably led to an assassination attempt on a minister. But if that premise sounds promising, temper your expectations: it’s just a way to send an urbane protagonist to a small village at the edge of civilization. Preoccupied by the police asking pointed questions and a painful kidney stone, he spends a few days hanging out with his aunt, greeting old high-school friends and hooking up with his bitter ex-girlfriend. I hope you’re not expecting much more of a plot, because that’s it. Our protagonist suffers from the symbolic kidney stone, but the mafia subplot is studiously minimized the longer the film goes on. Indeed, Un parallèle plus tard goes go on for a surprisingly punishing 90 minutes. Once you’ve seen the admittedly haunting landscape of Northern Quebec, it’s not the mundane interactions of the protagonist with the other characters that makes the film more engaging. We’re probably supposed to feel sorry for the aimless mafia collaborator, but the film doesn’t work out that way—I kept cheering for the kidney stone. Much was made of writer-director-producer Sébastien Landry being able to complete the film without government subsidies (as is often the norm in French Canada) but if you’re going to end up with that kind of result, eh, might as well stay home.