Elephant Song (La chanson de l’éléphant), 2014.
Directed by Charles Binamé.
Starring Bruce Greenwood, Xavier Dolan, Catherine Keener, Carrie-Anne Moss, Guy Nadon, and Colm Feore.
SYNOPSIS:
A psychiatrist is drawn into a complex mind game when he questions a disturbed patient about the disappearance of a colleague.
A young boy seeks out his mother who is a successful opera singer at a party but she has no interest in dealing with him. The flashback sequence transitions to a present day scene. An investigation is taking place involving the conduct of a psychiatrist when dealing with a patient who claims to have information about the whereabouts of a co-worker. Further flashbacks occur revealing that the home life is unsettled for the medical officer and that his ex-wife works with him at the psychiatric facility.
Everything revolves around a patient who has a fascination with elephants and seeks to manipulate the circumstances to the point where he exploits the emotional weaknesses of those seeking to extract information from him. There is a mischievous glee in controlling the proceeding which either reveals the mental superiority of the patient or the incompetence of those trying to analyse him.
Not surprisingly Elephant Song is adapted from a stage play by Nicolas Billon who also adapted the script; the movie is dialogue heavy, thereby, never leaving its theatrical roots behind. The contained thriller involves three major parts played by Bruce Greenwood (Good Kill), Xavier Dolan (I Killed My Mother), and Catherine Keener (Capote). Keener does a good job of playing someone who has been scarred by a family tragedy and is weary of the antics she is witnessing. Greenwood is somewhat emotionally removed from the situation which makes the character cold and his creditability is stretched as he is too easily baited. Unlike Anthony Hopkins who was able to convey a charming psychotic in The Silence of the Lambs (1991), Dolan comes across as a petulant child with serious mother issues.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★★/ Movie: ★★
Originally published September 14, 2014. Updated April 13, 2018.
