The Republic Of Love (2004)

Best movie ever!

Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

More mermaids, please. Fay(Emilia Fox) is supposed to like mermaids, but the filmmaker shows disinterest in the mythical creatures of the deep by its very negation from the museum curator's interior life. The mermaid, who is often alone, describes Fay's emotional life. Mermaids are sirens; solitary creatures who lure lonely sailors with their beauty and oceanic love songs. It's a visual motif that needs to be in the film. A filmmaker with an understanding of Irish folklore would exploit Fay's passion to the hilt. When her love affair with Tom Avery(Bruce Greenwood) goes awry, that's when "The Republic of Love" needs the half-woman, half-fish inside Faye to come out of its watery environs. She is a romantic. A mermaid. Late in the film, she watches a documentary about eels, which would've made a stronger impression on the viewer had the mermaid angle been better exploited. The realities of the sea(eels exist; mermaids don't) mirrors the reality of her parents' marriage, and the reality of her godfather's mortality(mermaids are immortal; humans are not). But the filmmaker never allows Fay to be a mermaid. The filmmaker seems to keep the Irish nature of "The Republic of Love" largely in the closet. Instead, for some inexplicable reason, mournful Indian music on the soundtrack describes Fay's grief, even though, earlier in "The Republic of Love", it's her former lover who rented the Bollywood musical. She had fallen asleep. Indian cinema disinterest her. But this filmmaker doesn't care and takes a page out of the Mira Nair handbook(she transformed "Vanity Fair" into something that lovers of the William Makepeace Thackery couldn't recognize), nevertheless, by grafting her indigenous culture onto a foreign one, which probably ill-serves the Carol Shields novel. The late Canadian writer shouldn't be punished for writing about white people. This filmmaker wants to integrate Shields' imagination.

THE REPUBLIC OF LOVE is yet another fine film from Canada based on Canadian Pulitzer Prize Winner (for 'The Stone Diaries') Carol Shields' novel by the same name, and written for the screen and directed by the gifted Deepa Mehta ('Earth', 'Fire', 'Water', etc). It is a satisfying story about the human boundaries set by/for love and how those 'republics' touch and clash and interact.Tom Avery (the very gifted actor Bruce Greenwood) was an illegitimate child, raised by a homemaker class as a teaching lesson in how young brides to be should learn the skills of tending house, who has grown up, married three times out of a need for belonging and for being loved, and is currently unattached, making his living as a night talk show host helping the lonely hearts. Into his life steps the beautiful museum curator, currently immersed in a Mermaid exhibition, by the name of Fay (Emilia Fox) who remains single because of her exceptionally high demands for a partner. The two meet, fall immediately in love much to their individual surprise, and proceed to court and encounter other couples (especially their parents) who seem to hold the winning medals for perfect marriage.Fay's parents (James Fox is Richard, the father) have just celebrated their anniversary when Richard abruptly decides to leave his wife. Fay runs to her mother's rescue, leaving Tom alone and the apparent brunt of Fay's disillusion of marriage. The changes that occur cause Tom to reflect on his history of marrying too often in unions that have not met with success. How Fay and Tom ultimately resolve the abutments of their personal republics is the part of the story that carries the film.The entire cast includes some of Canada's finest actors and the film is solidly directed by Mehta. There are aspects that disrupt the flow of the story, the main one being the incessant and very loud East Indian music that seems wholly out of place and is at best distracting (the score was written by Talvin Singh). Mehta also elects to throw in some bizarre cutesy animation at the end that for this viewer cheapens the story. But flaws aside, this is a fine film graced by the presence of Bruce Greenwood and Emilia Fox. Recommended entry from Film Movement. Grady Harp

I agree with the previous commentary that there is an excellent director at work in this film, and that the script can be rather thin at times. However, the chemistry between Bruce Greenwood and Emilia Fox save the movie. The ups and downs they face have some similar correlation to the problems we all face in real life, although there are times when one wonders about their strange situations. Still, both actors have created full, living and breathing characters for us to enjoy and, while at times we wonder why the story heads in a certain direction, we are still captivated by the relationship these two actors have created for the screen. In my youth I was never a fan of Canadian productions. Films like this keep changing my mind and deserve all the support we can give it.Get your lover, a bottle of your favourite wine and enjoy; it's worth it.

The Republic of Love sadly confirms my suspicion that Deepa Mehta is a director of limited talent and vision. The film is dramatically and emotionally inert - a far, far cry from Carol Shields source novel. Certain sequences - for example, the lamentable nonsense about mermaids in the museum - are little short of embarrassing, with Mehta seemingly unable to construct convincing relationships. Certain sets look as if they were built on very limited budgets. The whole thing isn't helped by weak decisions in the casting department. Emilia Fox is cold and fails to convince us of any of her character's passion. Bruce Greenwood struggles to convince us of his heterosexuality. And Edward Fox is - well - just plain terrible. His accent sounds as it was trained at the Dick Van Dyke School of Elocution. A major misfire. Avoid.