‘I’m Going Home’ offers meditation on mortality

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In theaters

I’M GOING HOME, written and directed by Manoel de Oliveira, 90 minutes, in French and English with English subtitles, not rated. Starts tonight, Movie City 8, Bangor.

So what are we to do with death when it’s no longer a vaguely unpleasant notion tugging at the subconscious but a fully grown bear that refuses to be ignored?

Should we just press forward, living our lives as fully as we can until there’s no choice but to face death head-on? Or should we just resign ourselves to death’s inevitability and approach it without fear or reservation?

It’s this process of coming to terms with one’s mortality that 94-year-old Manoel de Oliveira observes in his 36th film, “I’m Going Home,” a movie that benefits greatly from the director’s perspective as a nonagenarian in the twilight of his life and career, as the film is about a man dealing with the approaching end of his own life and career.

Brought to Bangor by the River City Cinema Society and shown in conjunction with the University of Maine’s Center on Aging’s May Festival, “I’m Going Home” may not be de Oliveira’s best film, but it is among his most accessible.

It follows Gilbert Valence (Michel Piccoli), a famous French actor living in Paris whom we first see in a scene from Eugene Ionesco’s “Exit the King,” in which the king, aware his days are numbered, addresses the situation in a full-blown rage. “Why was I born if not forever?” he asks. “What a farce! I came into the world five minutes ago. No time to get to know life. I never had time!”

The moment the curtain drops, Valence is given the very worst sort of news – his wife, daughter and son-in-law were just killed in a car accident. Now, he must care for his young grandson, Serge (Jean Koeltgen), while trying to find meaning in the sudden vacuum his life has become.

We never see Valance grieve. Instead, shielding his film from any trace of sentimentality, de Oliveira resumes Valance’s story after the grieving process, when he has settled into the new rhythms of his life as he reacquaints himself with the shops and cafes in his Paris neighborhood.

He still performs – we see him as Prospero in “The Tempest” – but as the film unwinds, it becomes clear that all is not well with Valance, a fact even he can’t ignore when he takes a small role as Buck Mulligan in an English-language version of “Ulysses” and finds that he can’t remember his lines or maintain an Irish brogue.

Based on de Oliveira’s own script, “I’m Going Home” is occasionally too self-indulgent for its own good and doesn’t rise to the level of the director’s “Voyage to the Beginning of the World” and “The Divine Comedy.” But with Piccoli in a pitch-perfect performance, Catherine Deneuve in a haughty cameo and John Malkovich as the American director Valence comes to disappoint most, the movie nevertheless lingers, offering a meditation on mortality that leads to several unshakable moments, not the least of which is its smashing final shot.

Grade: B+

On video and DVD

CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, directed by Steven Spielberg, written by Jeff Nathanson, 140 minutes, rated PG-13.

Steven Spielberg’s “Catch Me if You Can” is based on the true story of Frank Abagnale Jr., a young man who became a teacher, a pilot, a doctor, an assistant district attorney and a multimillionaire all before the age of 21.

Before some of you start questioning whether your own child is up to snuff, it’s helpful to know that Frank was a fraud and a crook, achieving his remarkable “success” through an untold number of lies and his considerable charm.

Based on Abagnale’s own memoirs, the film features a performance by Leonardo DiCaprio as Abagnale that’s so breezy, it keeps the film bubbling in spite of its 21/2-hour running time. Set during the mid-1960s, the movie chronicles Abagnale’s life from ages 16 to 25, with the 28-year-old DiCaprio fully believable at each age.

After the traumatic divorce of his parents (Christopher Walken and Nathalie Baye), Abagnale – eager to become more than just the product of their failed marriage – stumbles into his true calling as a con artist. He learns early on that sometimes all a person needs to succeed isn’t the right education but the right suit, a disarming smile, a fresh face, a way with words and the chutzpah to carry on in spite of the odds life sometimes stacks against you.

As such, Frank drops out of school and begins a remarkable life of crime, forging millions of dollars in Pan Am paychecks after passing himself off as a Pan Am pilot and conning his way into the friendly skies. Colorful stints as a doctor and a lawyer follow – and so does Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks), the lonely FBI agent determined to catch Frank if he can.

What ensues is lively and fun, a cat-and-mouse chase crisscrossing continents that’s deepened considerably by the bond that grows between the two men. Indeed, as the years pass, Frank and Carl develop a father-son relationship whose strength is fully revealed at the end, which offers a twist that won’t be revealed here – but which would have seemed absurd if it weren’t based on fact.

Grade: A-

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear Mondays and Fridays in Style, Tuesdays at 5 p.m. and Thursdays at 5:30 p.m. on WLBZ 2 and WCSH 6, and are archived on RottenTomatoes.com. He can be reached at BDNFilm1@aol.com.

The Video-DVD Corner

Renting a video or a DVD? NEWS film critic Christopher Smith can help. Below are his grades of recent releases in video stores. Those in bold print are new to video stores this week.

The Banger Sisters ? B

Barbershop ? B+

Catch Me If You Can ? A-

Drumline ? B+

8 Mile ? C

8 Women ? B

The Emperor’s Club ? C+

Far From Heaven ? A

Femme Fatale ? C+

Formula 51 ? F

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets ? B+

Half Past Dead ? F

Igby Goes Down ? A

Lilo & Stitch ? B+

Maid in Manhattan ? B-

Minority Report ? A-

Moonlight Mile ? B

One Hour Photo ? A-

Rabbit Proof Fence ? A-

Real Women Have Curves ? A-

Red Dragon ? B+

The Ring ? C

The Road to Perdition ? A-

Secretary ? B+

Spirited Away ? A

Standing in the Shadows of Motown ? B+

Sweet Home Alabama ? B-

Swept Away ? D-

Swimfan ? C

The Transporter ? B-

Treasure Island ? B-

Two Weeks Notice ? C-

White Oleander ? B+

The Wild Thornberries Movie ? B+