Dr. Lawrence has gone missing and the only person that might know where he is is an elephant-obsessed and troubled patient by the name of Michael Aleen (Xavier Dolan). In an effort to get any information Michael may be withholding, Dr. Green (Bruce Greenwood) sits down with him, but Green’s ego and the fact he didn’t read Michael’s file before beginning the interview leaves him at a serious disadvantage.
Set in the mid-’60s and based on the Nicolas Billon play of the same name, Elephant Song is a psychological drama in which Michael plays mind games with the good doctor, preying on what he knows of Dr. Green’s personal life, including his past relationship with Michael’s nurse, Susan Peterson (Catherine Keener).
Billon adapted his own play for the screen and it’s easily recognizable as something intended for the stage, though the benefit of telling the story on the big screen is the timeline can be broken up, shifting the narrative back-and-forth from present day and into the past as Dr. Green and Nurse Peterson are interviewed in relation to what exactly happened during Dr. Green’s chat with Michael. This creates an ominous mood throughout the picture, but the tension is somewhat muted as Michael begins his series of games, hinting at murder and inappropriate behavior, and Dr. Green must attempt to extract the truth from the lies all while Nurse Peterson is far too cryptic in her concerns over just how easily Michael will be able to manipulate the good doctor.
The performances are fun to watch. Dolan is great casting as the disturbed patient and I can see why he’d take the role, despite the fact he largely sticks to working on his own films when he’s not providing his voice for a boatload of French dubbing. Michael isn’t what I would call crazy, but Dolan’s playful performance is both disconcerting and heart-breaking, even if his end goal becomes a little obvious. Greenwood is a worthy opponent in this case, not that Green is up to the task and able to go toe-to-toe with Michael, but because his ego won’t allow him to admit defeat. It would have been an easy thing for Greenwood to overplay and he comes close to doing so, but he remains in the sweet spot, convincing us of his arrogance, but not so much that we think he deserves whatever is coming to him.
Directed by Charles Binamé, holes could be poked in the narrative from the beginning as it tries to both tell an emotional story as well as stick to the mystery of what happened to Dr. Lawrence. My intrigue here, however, is less with the overarching mystery and more in the performances and dialogue. Billon’s screenplay is more of a great emotional exploration rather than an intriguing mystery. Dolan gets the bulk of the better lines, none better than when he tells an increasingly impatient Dr. Green, “Giving you a straight answer does not fulfill my mandate of lunacy”. Of course, Green might not have grown so impatient had Nurse Peterson been a little more aggressive in warning him what he was up against.
Full disclosure, I largely wanted to see this movie to find out what had intrigued Dolan enough to get him to step away from working on something of his own and star in something for someone else. I assume it was because it afforded him the chance to explore an interesting character that had more than his fair share of emotional complications. In the end, it’s a challenging role inside a rather mediocre film.
Keener’s character is the most problematic, playing a rather incompetent worrywart and while Carrie-Anne Moss‘ role is extraordinarily limited, she too is more of a thorn in the film’s side rather than adding anything of consequence. This is basically the Dolan and Greenwood show and both turn out worthy performances even if the film itself is a little lackluster in the end.
