Tom at the Farm (2014)

Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

This film tells the story of a man, called Tom, who pays an unannounced visit to his late boyfriend's farm in a small town in Quebec. He meets the brother who is violent and widely feared by the whole town. Yet, Tom is attracted to danger and stays at the farm.This story is really captivating. It has so many subtle clues as to what the psychologically disturbed characters are thinking, which explain their behaviour. It drives viewers to think deeply about the reasons for their seemingly inexplicable behaviour, which is engaging and thrilling. Tom is clearly very attracted to being abused, and his psychological state is portrayed vividly by the film. There are some really dangerous moments in the film, making it thrilling. I really enjoyed watching "Tom at the Farm", and I look forward to watching other films by the same director.

.... and I think Xavier Dolan threw in a subconscious symbolic message no one has picked up on.If you want to read about the plot of this movie there are plenty of reviews here that focus on that. I want to write something here that occurred to me maybe 3 or 4 days after viewing 'Tom at the Farm'.Near the end of the film after Tom has escaped from the farm and evaded the attempt by Francis to capture Tom in the woods, we see Francis walking away from the camera and on the back of his jacket is an American flag! That image left me a bit confused as to why a bold American flag. Then it occurred to me that maybe Dolan is making a statement that Francis represents what the USA is today - a neurotic phobic bully. And that is what we are given in the Francis character. The mother 'Agathe' represents the many citizens of the US that refuse to see or try to comprehend what is happening in their country. The unknown 'victim' of Francis represents the countries that have dared to 'talk-back' to what America does. And Tom, he represents the friendly nations to America and what Francis does to Tom is what the US has and is doing daily to it's friendly nations.I realize this may be reading more than really exist in this movie but ... this is the effect 'Tom at the Farm' had upon me.

Set in a lonely farm in Quebec, TOM A LA FERME concerns the inner life of the eponymous central character (Xavier Dolan) mourning the death of his lover. He goes to his lover's family's isolated farm for the funeral, and there encounters the mother (Lise Roy) and her other son (Pierre-Yves Cardinal), neither of whom were aware of the dead lover's sexuality.The film concentrates on the gradual discovery by the family of their dead son's secret, and how it affects them. Francis is both horrified yet strangely affected; as the action unfolds, he develops an unnatural affection for Tom that is both sadistic and sexual. The mother seems to be unaware of what's happening around her, but perhaps she is just deliberately blinding herself to the truth as a means of self-protection. Tom finds himself imprisoned at the farm; even when his close acquaintance Sarah (Evelyne Brochu) comes to visit, he cannot contrive an effective escape.TOM A LA FERME concentrates on the ways in which people conceal their private inclinations, even from their nearest and dearest, and the damage that actually causes them. This is especially true of Francis, who emerges from the film as a seriously disturbed character, masking his sexual inadequacies beneath a veil of strength. Yet the process of self-discovery for all the characters is an enabling one - so much so that when Tom finally escapes from the farm, he does not appear very happy to have done so. The film ends with a shot of him re-entering the city of Montreal, the lighted skyscrapers flashing by outside his car windows, with his face set in an expressionless gaze as he drives. It seems that 'freedom' for him is nothing more than a form of imprisonment; by extension, therefore, his imprisonment at the farm was an opportunity to discover some form of freedom.Filmed on a series of bleak winter days in stark, washed-out colors, TOM A LA FERME is a searing psychological examination of sexualities and how they are often willfully concealed.

In 'Tom a la Ferme', Canadian director Xavier Dolan creates a maximum of suspense with a minimum of resources. Three people in an isolated farmhouse, a secret shared by two of them and the psychotic behaviour of one of them - that's it. Despite the lack of action and the slow pacing, the story is so intense it gripped me from start to finish. Tom is the lover of the recently deceased Guillaume, and visits Guillaume's mother and brother to attend the funeral. But Guillaume's mother doesn't know her son was gay, so the brother makes Tom act as if he was straight, and forces him to talk about an imaginary girlfriend. The brother doesn't hesitate to use violence in order to keep up the charade, and even immobilizes Tom's car so he can't leave. While secrets from the past are slowly uncovered, the situation becomes more and more unbearable for Tom. More than once, this movie made me think about Hitchcock's best films. There is the very prominent soundtrack, complete with shrieking violins. Also, like Hitchcock, Dolan uses location as an essential element in the story. And there are small scenes that add to the unsettling atmosphere, like a dead cow being dragged away, a taxi driver who refuses to enter the driveway of the farmhouse, or the blood on the hands after the birth of a calf. 'Tom a la Ferme' is not perfect. It is rather slow, and some scenes are a bit strange. For example, Guilaume's mother bursts out in hysterical laughter after Tom quotes some perverse language from the imaginary girlfriend. But overall, this is impressive film making. (By the way: there's a very good a cappella interpretation of Michel Legrand's 'Les Moulins de mon Coeur' during the first scene. It isn't listed on IMDb' soundtrack section, but apparently it's by Canadian actress/singer Kathleen Fortin).