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Sorry, this movie sucks

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

As Good As It Gets

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

The script is the best feature of the film. It has details of personality. Could have made a better movie with it. Haden Church achieves a commendable performance, even throughout the movie, but without big moments. Good intentions are seen in the feature film debut of the director, but it doesn't go all the way. It could have been a much more intense film. With inevitables reference to "Fargo", especially the snow as the big star and a crime as a starting point. Very interesting as the plot unfolds, fragments, and it will illuminate the reasons why the protagonist is in the situation he is. We can also highlight the ethical problem: good action, evil deed, guilt and punishment. This director can be to follow. The rhythm is a little slow. The best scene are the final 15 seconds.

Although I thought this movie got a little tedious and that some of the plot elements didn't quite add up, I still found that it pulled me in right from the start and kept me intrigued throughout.It's basically a two person film with the fine actor Thomas Haden Church leading the way and starring as Bruce. He's been drinking heavily since his wife died a year before, while living in the Canadian wilderness. However, his livelihood as a snow plow driver has been shut down, as his license has been revoked for driving drunk and crashing into a restaurant.Marc Lebreche, as Paul, is the other major player here, and rather than write too many spoilers here I'll just say we learn a lot more about him as the film progresses. I can say that the movie opens with Paul running desperately through the snow covered streets of the town, while Bruce is shown driving his snow plow in a snowstorm with very poor visibility. Suddenly, we see the plow crashing straight on into Paul.Through flashbacks, we'll eventually learn how these two men got to the opening scenes, and it is quite a journey we're in store for. We'll also see what amounts to a wilderness survival story and a slow descent into madness, which, as mentioned can get a little tiresome, but still kept me quite engrossed.I thought this was quite a good effort for a directorial debut from Emanuel Hoss-Desmaris, who also co-wrote the script with first time screenwriter Marc Tulin.Overall, I felt this film had its' limitations, but I still found it to be an intriguing and engaging watch.

Whitewash on paper sounds like the most boring film ever made but as a film, Whitewash is an excellent story of survival as Bruce, Thomas Haden Church, a local snow plow driver and a drunk in a rural Quebec town who accidentally kills a man while driving his plow on a stormy evening. Out of a drunken paranoia, he hides out in the wilderness during a severe storm. In the time that he is by himself, he reflects back on the events that got him where he is. This film is absolutely fantastic. It is paced beautifully and gives the audience just enough, minute by minute to keep the audience interested. Writer/Director Emanuel Hoss- Desamaris proves he is one hell of a director. Equal parts psychological thriller and survival drama, Desamaris does a wonderful job blending these genres, filling the void with a clever voice-over from Bruce. Thomas Haden Church is absolutely phenomenal here, flawless in his performance. To be able to take a film and carry it from start to finish is no easy feat for an actor and for Church to be able to pull it off effortlessly really makes you question why this guy isn't in more stuff because he is truly mesmerizing here. Cinematographer André Turpin does an amazing job here as well, chronicling the harsh environment Bruce is in all while delivering extreme suspense in certain scenes, it is really well done and with the added snow merely intensifies his imagery here. It is very close to Roger Deakins and Conrad Hall's work. Another highlight with this film is the score by Serge Nakauchi Peletier. It is a beautiful piece of music that fit the film perfectly and if the cinematography or the acting doesn't cut it for you, the score sure as hell will. Out of the box and absolutely triumphant, Whitewash is a relentless psychological drama that uses ever minute of its runtime wisely and has Thomas Haden Church in a career best performance.

Why are all these reviews tip toeing around the fact that this is a bad movie? Anyone who has lived even one season in the winter here would know about several fallacies of winter existence. I just kept praying that Darwinian justice would take out this man. Who falls asleep in a blizzard, outside, and wakes up the next day with nothing more than a little cough? Who hides out in a small detached garage, with no heat, instead of just waiting on the porch for the family to come home? For that matter, what fool would store glass bottles of beer in an unheated garage for a whole season? What character would attempt suicide, in front of a store, by running a hose from the exhaust to the inside of a car? That was blatantly stupid for three reasons; 1.) Newer model cars just don't poison like they used to. Look it up. Oh, that's right, apparently there are no fact checkers anywhere near this script. 2.) What suicidal person would park themselves in front of a supermarket, and choose this rather obvious method to kill themselves? 3.) The easiest, and least painful way to kill yourself in winter is...in the freaking snow. Hypothermia is then your friend. (This is also a problem with the main character's brilliant idea to torch himself later on in the movie...it just doesn't jibe with the location. Let's face it, self immolation is a pretty grand suicidal gesture, usually done in front of people, to bring commentary on the cause they're trying to promote!) The main character also doesn't have a fundamental grasp of basic survival skills in the beginning of the movie (like... how to build a lean to when trapped outside, or, how to use ice and snow to your advantage by sliding bulky items - like three large gas cans, along behind you as opposed to throwing them in front of you, or, how hiding out in your house is probably a better idea than tramping through the snow. So, he goes from being this idiot one day to building himself a snow cave the next, (man height, with only a snow shoe to dig with. Yeah right, he's going to be able to dig down four feet in the dead of winter, with a snow shoe, when he doesn't even have the sense God gave a goat) the next. Even when he is a "1000 miles away from the nearest human" he manages a walk to the café to store up on two burgers, brew, and gas. Finally, driving away in the murder victim's car, when he knows he's a suspect after reading a newspaper article about it? This movie just really doesn't work. You can make excuses all you want (oh, it's really just a black comedy, or, it's an existentialist movie, whatever). Really, it's just what it looks like; a bad movie, based on bad "facts".