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Collaborator

COLLABORATOR written and directed by Martin Donovan, with Martin Donovan, David Morse, Olivia Williams and Melissa Auf der Maur. An eOne Films release. 87 minutes. Opens Friday (July 13). For venues and times, see Movies. Rating: NNNN


Collaborator is a gimmick movie, but the gimmick is sound.

In actor Martin Donovan’s economic directorial debut, a two-hander about a damaged playwright, Robert (Donovan) finds himself trapped in his childhood home by Gus (David Morse), a working-class neighbour with a gun and an incoherent grudge.

By taking the time to establish Robert in the outside world before springing his thriller mechanism, Donovan (who also scripted) makes the theatricality of the situation less of an issue. He also does a great job of disguising his Sault Ste. Marie locations as a suburb of Los Angeles, something I wouldn’t have thought possible.

And he gets a terrific performance out of Morse as a lifelong fuck-up who’s finally beginning to understand the role he’s played in his own misery.

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