The mother and homophobic brother live on a farm and when Tom tries to leave after the funeral, the brother doesn't let him. Dolan is also playing the lead character Tom, who visits the family of his deceased lover for the funeral. Canadian wonder child Xavier Dolan (born in '89) adapted the play by Michel Marc Bouchard, who co-wrote the script for the movie. I must say, the expectations were high and growing and most of the time high expectations are hard to live up to. It was the opening film and the festival director Werner Borkes made clear in his opening speech that he felt like a very lucky man to be able to show us this movie already. I was one of the lucky people to see this movie tonight at the Dutch festival 'Roze Filmdagen' (Pink Film Days) in Amsterdam before it will hit the art-house cinemas here in april. It isn't listed on IMDb' soundtrack section, but apparently it's by Canadian actress/singer Kathleen Fortin). (By the way: there's a very good a cappella interpretation of Michel Legrand's 'Les Moulins de mon Coeur' during the first scene. But overall, this is impressive film making. For example, Guilaume's mother bursts out in hysterical laughter after Tom quotes some perverse language from the imaginary girlfriend. It is rather slow, and some scenes are a bit strange. And there are small scenes that add to the unsettling atmosphere, like a dead cow being dragged away, a taxi driver who refuses to enter the driveway of the farmhouse, or the blood on the hands after the birth of a calf. Also, like Hitchcock, Dolan uses location as an essential element in the story. There is the very prominent soundtrack, complete with shrieking violins. More than once, this movie made me think about Hitchcock's best films.
While secrets from the past are slowly uncovered, the situation becomes more and more unbearable for Tom. The brother doesn't hesitate to use violence in order to keep up the charade, and even immobilizes Tom's car so he can't leave. But Guillaume's mother doesn't know her son was gay, so the brother makes Tom act as if he was straight, and forces him to talk about an imaginary girlfriend. Tom is the lover of the recently deceased Guillaume, and visits Guillaume's mother and brother to attend the funeral. Despite the lack of action and the slow pacing, the story is so intense it gripped me from start to finish. Three people in an isolated farmhouse, a secret shared by two of them and the psychotic behaviour of one of them - that's it. In 'Tom a la Ferme', Canadian director Xavier Dolan creates a maximum of suspense with a minimum of resources.
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