Reviewed by Adam Stephen Kelly
Stars Paul Gross, Caroline Dhaverners, Joe Dinicol, Meredith Bailey | Written by Paul Gross
UK certification 15 | UK RRP £12.99 | DVD Region 2 | Runtime 109 minutes | Directed by Paul Gross
Written, directed, produced by and starring Paul Gross, Passchendaele is as much of a personal passion project as you can get. Based on his grandfather's war story, Passchendaele is a melodrama set in the First World War about a shell-shocked soldier (Gross) who falls in love with the German-born woman who nursed him back to health, and their struggle to restrain her asthmatic and naive teenage brother from his quest to join the Canadian military in a selfish thirst for revenge at his own family.
Passchendaele is Canada's highest-budget film of all time, costing a reported $20 million, but with a very disappointing gross thus far and a substandard release, I very much doubt the film is going to be hailed as a success by those involved.
Moving away from the financial aspect, is the film any good you may wonder? No, not really. Where the $20 million went I have no idea, probably on a humungous fee for the quadruple-involved Paul Gross. The film looks far from authentic and all the digital effects are pretty terrible. Not only do the sets look like sets, but the performances are simply not convincing enough to carry the period drama, costumes and all. Gross is fairly decent, but nothing more exciting than his days on TV in Due South. Joe Dinicol, who plays the hot-headed teenager, contributes not only a laughable performance, but an extremely annoying voice that accurately resembles nails on a chalkboard. Speaking of laughable, there is a moment in the film where Gross' character's age is revealed as 27. He was 48 at the time of filming. Way to flatter yourself, Paul.
The plot, while solid, is slow-burning and tedious. The actual Battle of Passchendaele isn't until the last 15 minutes of the near two-hour film, so expect a lot of yawning when you get bored of the clunky dialogue and sappy romantic cliches. Although, I'm not sure having sex in the middle of a torrential downpour on an exploding battlefield constitutes as romantic, just unintentionally and outrageously hilarious, as is dialogue like, “Would you like to introduce some foreign matter into me?”.
The film is not particularly shot well, which you may not be too surprised to hear given that the inexperienced Gross was supposedly “directing”, despite acting in almost every scene. One scene in particular, in the final moments of the film, involves a certain out-of-his-mind soldier running into a German trench, an explosion saving him from getting shot, and then appearing crucified literally five seconds later without a shot to indicate a transition in time. It looks completely ridiculous, and not only that, but Mr. Writer/Director/Producer/Protagonist sees fit to approach the enemy trench, to which the Germans feel compelled to hold their fire and allow Gross to carry the crucified soldier on the cross. I'm sorry, but how can anyone try to input remorse into an antagonistic soldier who just had someone crucified? That makes no sense. Then Gross carries the cross on his back and collapses to one knee on his way back to his comrades. Absolutely outrageously pathetic symbolism. Who does Paul think he is? Passchendaele is self-indulgence that I did not care to watch, but patriotic Canadians might. It left a bitter taste in my mouth that was begging to be ousted by something brilliant like Band of Brothers, with the only positive the film bringing being the fact that it depicts Canada's historical involvement in the Battle of Passchendaele in a manner where it has previously been ignored in cinema.
EXTRAS * Just a making-of featurette.