C.R.A.Z.Y

2

Written on 5:01 PM by Hemanth Kumar

Title: C.R.A.Z.Y
Language: French
Country: Canada
Year of Release: 2005
Director: Jean-Marc Vallée
Actors: Michel Côté, Marc-André Grondin,Danielle Proulx
Awards: 33 wins and 4 nominations...for the entire list click here

Every now and then, you come across some quite unexpected movies which will excite you to a great level and compel you to take notice of that kind of genre too. Of course, not every movie dealing with the same theme might be as captivating as the one which inspired you...what's more important is how the story is told. Also the level to which a director can go to make his point without going over the top will definitely create a great impression about the movie. In India, where these days, we have quite a few film makers who are trying to deal with the theme of homosexuality in the society...perhaps for all of them this Canadian movie C.R.A.Z.Y would be a good script to study...for the simple reason that the director has a good aesthetic sense of dealing the theme with sensitivity!

C.R.A.Z.Y is a family drama set in the suburbs of Quebec, Canada. The family has five sons Brainy (Christian); Druggy (Raymond); Sporty (Antoine); Fairy (Zachary); and Fatty (Yvan) ..that's why the title of the story, which has been derived from the starting letter from their names. The main character of all of them is Zac, and the whole story revolves around his life and how that in turn has its effects on others. While growing up, the family comes in terms with their strict father who struggles hard to bring up his children with utmost discipline. But things don't go as he would have wanted, so we have each of his sons taking a different course. While in school, Zac makes himself belief that he has "more than normal-level of male hormones" and also develops a feeling that he's homosexual. One fine day, his father catches Zac cosying up with his friend and he's embarrassed to what he has become. After they grow up, Zac who's struggling with his identity, also fosters a desire to please his father by returning the record of Patsy Cline's classic song "Crazy", which Zac had broken out of rage in his childhood. What follows after that is one man's journey to find himself and how he realizes what he has been missing all his life and a climax to their confused lives which brings the estranged father and son together.

Almost every character stands out in the movie...be it the father, or Zac and his rivalry and unexplained love and care for his elder brother Raymond, and Raymond himself who's become a drug addict. The theme fiddles around Zac's identity about how he fathoms it and how his family and society at large want him to think. Quite literally it's a struggle going on in a youth's mind and how he tries to come in terms with everything around him. There isn't a strand of vulgarity unless you are quite uncomfortable at the very words of homosexuality itself, as you would see in the movie are a series of misunderstandings which jeopardizes quite a number of relationships in a family.

It's a film with a good story and also very well narrated, be it the sub-plot of the healing powers that Zac had supposedly possessed, or the one which shows his journey to distant lands to seek wisdom....watch the film...you won't restrain yourself from feeling awe at almost every scene.

Check out this teaser on the movie....