4TheRcrd Mag.

Bruce Sweeney (Last Wedding, Dirty, Live Bait) shows us a complex psychological process in “American Venus” where “Celia”, in a remarkable tour-de-force of very very few actual events, is an obsessive mother (Rebecca De Mornay, also in Risky Business, The Hand that Rocks the Cradle) who comes to terms with “Jenna’s” (her daughter’s) maturity, independence and coming-of-age. In very stringent shooting deadlines it is a complex film that represents the brilliantly acted female agency of a mother who, given her closeness with her daughter by also being her figure-skating trainer, is facing her daughter’s resentment. This is a complex study of maternal coming of age where letting go of a child is the hardest thing a parent has to do — and perhaps also a “crazy” thing. Because of the “universal” subject matter and the quality of acting, and considering it was barely 80 minutes long, I would rate this as one of this year’s best.

What pivots this psychological film closer to a dark drama is the predilection Celia has for guns, hereby epitomizing in a slight way the trigger-happy stereotypical “American” who’s ready to shoot for her or her daughter’s “safety,” or “protection,” as she puts it. This predilection, coupled with her strong alpha character, treat us to a soliloquy-style film, where the actions, dilemmas, and transformation of Celia’s character predominates more than half of the entire film. In so doing, we come to witness once again the masterful become-obsessive that De Mornay is so capable of giving to the camera. The absolute highlight of the film is De Mornay’s acting: an edgy-display of her thoughts and compulsive desire to shoot her gun, not just as a sexy-cum-stress-breaker, but also as a metaphor for her triggered worries for her daughter’s safety, all of which become simply self-fulfilling prophecies. This acting, in my opinion, will remain a memorable set of performances from a single actress, in this year’s film festival.

The representation of decadence in the film is very apropos the representation of the sheltering, upper-middle class, motherhood. It is an implicit critique of the closed nuclear-family model which, in so many video-game scenes of the early parts of the film, represent the father as merely an idle family-member, much resembling his uncritical and ineffectual sons who, for the entire film, remain nameless. Fatherhood, in this film, is represented as semi-effectual, to the extent that ‘daddy’ raises his hand because he cannot cope watching his daughter’s figure skating performance and, secondly, raises his hand only to write his daughter a cheque, or thirdly, when he gets involved in his only decision-making scene and is easily deceived by his spouse. The image of fatherhood is not a very impressive one here and, most certainly, not a multi-faceted one. Again, this is a fabulous contribution to Canadian cinema, and I’m proud to vote it as one of the best Canadian films this year.

PICTURE CREDIT: VIFF Picture Database. Used With Permission.