Death of a Ladies' Man

MA15+ | 1h 40min | Drama (Canada)

A carousing college professor's life takes a series of unimaginable turns and all the old stories are given a new twist when he begins to have surreal hallucinations and learns he may not be long for this world.

Stars: Gabriel Byrne Jessica Paré Brian Gleeson
Director: Matt Bissonnette
Writers: Matt Bissonnette Bobby Theodore (story consultant)

www.palacecinemas.com.au

Official Trailer: Death of a Ladies' Man

Review: Death of a Ladies' Man

Reviewed by SANDRA HALL from the May 20 2021 issue of The Age Digital Edition. To subscribe visit "https://www.theage.com.au".

Samuel O'Shea (Gabriel Byrne) can't resist flirting with every pretty woman he sees. But the charm and good looks have become blunted with the years and it's not working so well any more. His much younger wife has taken revenge for his many infidelities by cheating on him with someone her own age and the only solace he can find is in the bottle.

It's a familiar story but writer-director Matthew Bissonnette has livened it up by setting it to music. The melancholy cadences and rueful ironies of the Leonard Cohen album that gives the film its title start to colour the recollections and regrets of this shopworn Romeo. As the booze tightens its grip his reveries become more fanciful and bizarre until he starts hallucinating.

When eventually he becomes worried enough to see a doctor who happens to be female and attractive instinct obliges him to make a pass - but when he learns he has an inoperable brain tumour he decides it's time to work on his legacy. The film is partly set in Montreal Bissonnette's hometown where Samuel lectures indifferent college students in the refinements of English poetry. But in the second half prompted by the chain-smoking ghost of his father (Brian Gleeson) he takes off for Ireland his birthplace.

It's a bold move that puts the film in danger of feeling as if it's been split in two. By this point we have become involved in the lives of Samuel's family - his French-Canadian exwife Genevieve (Suzanne Clement) a fellow academic and their adult children Josee (Karelle Tremblay) and Layton (Antoine Olivier Pilon). Josee needs rescuing from the clutches of her junkie boyfriend and Layton could do with some support having just revealed he's gay and in love for the first time. Yet we're about to leave them behind for a large chunk of the picture. Samuel's libido is still persevering and the Irish trip is about to produce an affair with yet another much younger woman (Jessica Pare). From the very start Samuel's redemption is a given. But how will he go about it? More importantly how is Bissonnette going to match up the extravagance of his musical hallucinations with the realistic passages that carry the plot. It becomes increasingly eventful as Samuel's new affair intensifies and new revelations about his childhood take the action in yet another direction.

It's a crowded schedule yet Bissonnette's fine sense of the ridiculous succeeds in unifying its switches in mood tone and tempo so the songs and occasional dance routine find their place in the crazed mosaic.

Bissonnette chose Cohen's songs to supply the film's running motif partly because he views him as " Montreal's patron saint'' ; partly because his lyrics provide an apt commentary on the impulses that have overridden Samuel's efforts to do the right thing. Cohen and Byrne do make a great match.

Byrne's most remarkable achievement lies in the fact he never allows Samuel's incurable self-absorption to become boring. He is still capable of being startled and even entertained by the ingenuity of the tricks life can play on him. The Grim Reaper becomes just another member of the chorus and because Samuel's saving grace - his sense of humour - is as resilient as his sexual energy he winds up being a remarkably good companion faults and all.