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Denys Arcand revisits the characters from his Oscar-nominated (for Best Foreign Film) 1986 movie Le déclin de l’empire américain/The Decline of the American Empire, only this time, there’s a lot less sex. Rémy (Rémy Girard), the most aggressively promiscuous in a group of now-aging intellectuals, is dying of cancer. He’s still angry at the world, but his desperation makes him sympathetic, softening his fury until it all but fades away. His estranged son, Sébastien (stand-up comedian Stéphane Rousseau), arrives from London to make peace and in the process helps Rémy make sense of his life. To make his father comfortable, Sébastien pays off everyone from union officials to the beautiful but anguished heroin addict (Marie-Josée Croze) who comes to the hospital to ease Rémy’s pain. Of his crowded hospital room, Rémy says, "I chose Medicare, I’ll live with the consequences." That he doesn’t have to is less an indictment of his Socialist politics than it is a display of filial affection. Arcand is at times cynical — about relationships, politics, sex — but this film also shows his softer side, and as father and son edge toward reconciliation, the director becomes downright sentimental. Touching on the themes that affect us all in the twilight of one man’s life, Arcand has created a moving portrait of the world we live in and his struggle against it. In French with English subtitles. (99 minutes)
BY BROOKE HOLGERSON
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