OLIVER SHERMAN (Ryan Redford). 82 minutes. Opens Friday (February 4). For movie times, theatres, and trailers see Movies. Rating: NN
Toronto director Ryan Redford adapts Rachel Ingalls‘s short story Veterans into Oliver Sherman – a turgid, obvious melodrama about two men whose lives have taken very different paths after their return from combat.
Seven years ago, Franklin (Donal Logue) rescued the wounded Oliver (Garret Dillahunt) from certain death on the battlefield. (Which battlefield that might be is deliberately obscured, just like the licence plates on Franklin’s truck, so as not to alienate U.S. viewers who don’t know they’re watching a Canadian film.)
Now the brain-damaged Oliver has turned up on his doorstep, causing problems both minor and major for Franklin and his increasingly unaccommodating wife (Molly Parker).
Redford treats the delicate material with so much gravity that he crushes it with reverential self-importance. He’s also apparently instructed his cast to deliver every line of dialogue as though it were the most important moment in the whole picture. (Sample: “If the universe is so big, why isn’t there a place in it for me?”)
If you’ve seen Logue, Dillahunt or Parker in anything else – and I’m sure you have – you know they’re all much better than this movie. This is what happens when you put your trust in the wrong director.
