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How others will see it. This movie will have strong appeal to intellectuals, liberals, romantics, movie fans, and people of a certain age. Many people who see this film will adore it, and consider it to be one of the most moving, important, and inspirational films that they have seen in a long time. Nonetheless, the moment will pass, and the same people will soon forget even the title.
Of course, others will quickly reject the film for the wrong reason. It's subtitled.
How I felt about it. If The Barbarian Invasions were graded solely by its intentions, it might get 87/100. Unfortunately for filmmakers, movies are not evaluated by their intentions, but by their quality. The present film tries as hard as it can, but the touching moments are strained, and the humorous moments are too often embarrasing.
It is necessary to shred The Barbarian Invasions in order to reveal its problems. If the remainder of the review is too annoying to read, then don't read it. There's comfort in the notion that it is a wonderful film that warms the heart while bringing tears to the eye. It's easier to feel this way than to look for the truth. But, the truth has its thorns, and it is the intellectually courageous who look for them.
The story is centered around its two key characters. Financial wizard Sebastien is young but already wealthy, and the confident and determined fellow has the perfect girlfriend, passive brunette art dealer Gaelle (Marina Hands), who is gorgeous beyond measure. (She's not very professional, though, or she wouldn't break off from bidding on a high dollar auction lot to take a personal phone call.)
Sebastien learns that his father, who has practically disowned him, faces a painful, terrible death. Sebastien promptly puts his career on hold, and assumes a new duty, providing the ideal death for Remy. This requires plenty of cash: old friends must be paid to return, heroin must be supplied for the pain and the big send-off, hospital employees must be bribed.
Would Sebastien do this for his father? Yes, he probably would, not really out of love, but as a new mission to fulfill and be proud of. Still, when Sebastien is talking to narcotics officers and heroin kingpins in consecutive scenes, it's a bit much. And the heroin addict (or angel of death) he finds to illegally shoot up Dad is, of course, a sweet, vulnerable, and gorgeous brunette hottie (Marie-Josee Croze). For whom things are soon looking up, because that's the way the audience wants it.
Laughter and irony in the face of sorrow. The Barbarian Invasions really, really tries for this, but it's tough to do. Real tearjerkers work when the normal is underlined by tragedy. Are revealing jokes about private sexual acts normal, even among close friends who have had too much wine and face a tragedy? No, I don't think so. Certainly, it doesn't explain the opening scene, where the 'humorous' marital 'argument' is conducted in front of a stranger, a nurse obligated to listen.
It's more contrived than funny, and that is why the tears don't fall either. A mercy killing with illegally purchased heroin might not lead to a trial, but it is a sticky and unpleasant business, like death itself.