THE RIVER OF MY DREAMS: A PORTRAIT OF GORDON PINSENT (Brigitte Berman). 104 minutes. Opens Friday (January 27). See listing. Rating: NN
Presented as a slow drift through the memories of Gordon Pinsent, The River Of My Dreams is, well, exactly what you’d expect a Canadian documentary about the venerated actor to be: respectful bordering on reverent, and disappointingly dull.
Not that there’s anything wrong with a serious approach, but the life and work of Pinsent – an actor, writer and director of unexpectedly electric presence – cries out for an approach better suited to the man. Even as an octogenarian, the artist who made The Rowdyman must bristle at being treated like a delicate treasure.
But director/producer Berman (Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist And Rebel) goes strictly by the numbers, supporting Pinsent’s stories and Shakespearean recitations with testimonials from the usual suspects (Christopher Plummer! Norman Jewison!) and CG sequences intended to bring Pinsent’s childhood in Grand Falls to life – with Pinsent playing his younger self, and other characters, via motion capture.
Stiff and distracting, these moments are all the more irritating because Pinsent is so vivid a storyteller that they’re entirely unnecessary.
