Guilt (La Vérité) review
By Jackie Nicolls
Guilt screened Friday Sept 23 and has a encore screening on Tuesday Sept 27 (7pm @ Eau Claire)
Marc Bisaillon’s Guilt (La Vérité) is a sensitively gritty portrait of how two teenagers attempt to deal with the guilt of accidentally killing a man after an unruly night of partying. With a story that could just as easily have been told as a preachy “cautionary tale”, Bisaillon does an admirable job of giving the boys and their situation an unsettlingly relatable authenticity.
Guilt is the second in an announced tetralogy of films by Bisaillon; each examining the effects of silence on the various individuals who are affected when a crime is committed. Guilt concerns itself with the emotional toll that committing murder and keeping that burden a secret takes on a young conscience. Gabriel (Pierre-Luc Lafontaine) and Yves (Émile Mailhiot) are best friends, and are established as somewhat troublesome (in their opening scene together, they deliberately crash Yves’ car). After one night of drinking and music, they find themselves breaking into and destroying a residential home. On their way out, they are interrupted by a man who could turn them in. It is this encounter that quickly turns to tragedy. Throughout the rest of film, it is Gabriel (played with brilliant honesty and vulnerability by Lafontaine) who is suffering the most from the subsequent guilt; taking his turmoil out on his mother and his girlfriend. Yves holds his steadfast belief that they should forget about it and move on. As the story progresses, the friends drift apart and Gabriel’s grief leads him to irrational actions.
The delicate nature of the subject matter is dealt with very effectively and is told humanly, taking into account the mental states of characters on all sides of the incident. It is this humanity that gives the entire film a feeling of harsh reality that any audience member can take away with them – that this could happen to anyone – and that is what makes the story so believable. A key factor in the story’s believability is the strong performances by the cast. Pierre-Luc Lafontaine succeeds in playing Gabriel with innocence (but not naivety) and intelligence (but not ambition) that makes an audience immediately sympathize with him. Émile Mailhiot as Yves is a strong and confident counterpart to the more fragile Gabriel.
The only critique that can be made of this film is a few aspects of the cinematography. In many scenes, including one of the most pivotal scenes of the film, the action was unfortunately underexposed. It would be understandable to accept that this was an artistic choice and could just be the effects of these scenes taking place at night, but it was occasionally frustrating. As an audience member, it is very important that we can see the characters faces, especially with such talented actors. Without that direct line to the emotions of the protagonists, it is difficult to connect and relate to their experiences.
Overall, Guilt gives us a human and heartbreaking look into how people cope with a guilty conscience, how people deal with tragedy, and how people attempt to help the ones they care about. Not only does this film deserve to be seen, you deserve to see this film.
