SPEC D: Jordan Roberts. U.S. 102 min. Sep 15, 6 pm, Ryerson Sep 16, 9:30 am, Hot Docs Cinema Sep 18, 12:30 pm, Scotiabank 1. Rating: NNN
An eight-year-old American boy (Jacob Tremblay) becomes convinced he’s Mongolian and wants to visit the steppes of his “true home.” This further divides his parents, who are still reeling from a recent tragedy.
The set-up is quirky and charming, but director Roberts has problems with tone, especially once the film takes a literal big leap. Tremblay, spontaneous and instinctive, proves Room wasn’t a fluke, while Vera Farmiga fully inhabits another emotionally fragile, questing middle-aged woman and Suraj Sharma adds comic relief as an ESL student/aspiring documentarian.
But Marton Csokas’s stiff performance as the father/husband upsets the balance of the pic. And while the landscapes in the second half of the film should wow, Roberts’s obvious budgetary restrictions make them seem simply pleasant.
