De Pere en flic / Father and Guns (Emile Gaudreault, 2009): Canada

Reviewed by Danae Thomas. Viewed at The Santa Barbara International Film Festival, Metro 4 Theater.

Father and Guns or also known as De Pere en flic (Emile Gaudreault, 2009) was quite an entertaining film with its quirky jokes and humorous remarks fathers made towards their sons and vice versa. I found myself and the rest of the audience laughing throughout the film, not only was the film entertaining but there were some intense scenes of good guys fighting the bad guys which also kept the audience glued to their seats. People should go see this film because it’s difficult not to care about the characters because the actors do an excellent performance of convincing the audience that they are playing their roles; by their animated expressions when telling jokes, and by how the sons try and earn respect from their fathers while their fathers humiliate them in front of others.

In the beginning of the film we are introduced to Marc Laroche and Jacques Laroche also known as father and son who work together in a top secret agent company. A crisis happens which is Marc’s best friend Robert who also works with the company gets kidnapped by a group of gangsters. Marc and his father have some suspects of who they believe is part of the gangster group and find that they are going on a father son camping trip. They decide that they should go on the trip as well so they can spy on their suspects during the trip. The rest of the film is about how Marc and his father learn how to work together as a team during the trip and how Jacques Marc’s father learns how to respect Marc as his son. Marc also learns how to face his fears of shooting an opponent.

The acting in this film is excellent as the audience is convinced that these characters are fathers and sons trying to have a closer bond/relationship with each other. We are convinced that these actors are playing their roles by how they have to do father/son activities during the trip and as an audience we become assured that we there with the characters as they do their bonding activities. We can also feel remorse for the sons during this film as they try everything they can to earn respect from their fathers or fail to gain that respect. For example: Marc who struggles to face his fears of shooting at anything and as a result of his fear his father humiliates and insults him as a man. By watching Marc’s facial expressions which are those of embarrassment it’s hard not to feel sorry for him. The editing in this film helps the audience feel the intensity of certain scenes in this film such as in the beginning scene where Marc’s friend is kidnapped. During this scene there are a lot of jump cut shots that go back and forth from the gangsters kidnapping Robert to Marc and his father trying to stop the abduction. There is an also fast paced sound effects going on in background which makes the audience nervous and anxious.

This film is definitely worth your time if you are a person who likes a good comedy that will make you laugh with all of the humorous jokes and quirky smart talk done between fathers and sons.