Gabrielle is a cute, borderline boring, movie.
The main actress, Gabrielle Marion-Rivard, is charming and you can't help but admire her natural talent.
The plot raises serious moral questions: should we allow mentally challenged people to have more autonomy, even if they could potentially endanger themselves ?
Should we allow them to get romantically involved and, eventually, start a family ?
The movie doesn't try to answer those.
Are there any clear cut answers, anyway ?
All of those important dilemmas are exposed, in about 30 minutes or so.
The rest is repetitive padding: the choir from Les Muses (a real-life performing arts school for the disabled) are shown rehearsing for a big event.
Again. And again. And again.
Long scenes of singing that fail to entertain, clumsily shot, in a semi-vérité style.
All of those are intercut with contemplative vignettes of Gabrielle, riding the bus or eating with her sister (the excellent Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin).
Over an hour of padding plus 30 minutes of actual plot makes for a so-so movie that could have been so much more, had the writer-director given it a bit more effort.
In the end, you get the feeling of a thin plot outline that she tried to grow into a full-length movie in the editing room.
Sadly, it didn't quite work.
The main actress, Gabrielle Marion-Rivard, is charming and you can't help but admire her natural talent.
The plot raises serious moral questions: should we allow mentally challenged people to have more autonomy, even if they could potentially endanger themselves ?
Should we allow them to get romantically involved and, eventually, start a family ?
The movie doesn't try to answer those.
Are there any clear cut answers, anyway ?
All of those important dilemmas are exposed, in about 30 minutes or so.
The rest is repetitive padding: the choir from Les Muses (a real-life performing arts school for the disabled) are shown rehearsing for a big event.
Again. And again. And again.
Long scenes of singing that fail to entertain, clumsily shot, in a semi-vérité style.
All of those are intercut with contemplative vignettes of Gabrielle, riding the bus or eating with her sister (the excellent Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin).
Over an hour of padding plus 30 minutes of actual plot makes for a so-so movie that could have been so much more, had the writer-director given it a bit more effort.
In the end, you get the feeling of a thin plot outline that she tried to grow into a full-length movie in the editing room.
Sadly, it didn't quite work.