Laurence Anyways

Young Canadian filmmaker Xavier Dolan's Laurence Anyways stars Melvil Poupaud as the titular 35-year-old literature professor and promising author living in Montreal, who is involved in a spirited romance with Frédérique, aka Fred (Suzanne Clément). The pair carry on in their own bubble of loud music, laughter, sex, and fiery verbal games until one day Laurence confesses that he intends to undergo a sex change operation and become the woman he is meant to be. Dolan follows the course of their relationship over a decade as Laurence physically evolves in stages, and Fred marries another man yet can't let go of her soulmate, fleshing out the central story with a number of fringe characters and subplots, including several painful scenes between Laurence and his/her conflicted mother (Nathalie Baye). Laurence Anyways boasts some surreal elements—including a Fellini-esque group of transgendered folk, and the occasional rain (from the sky) of clothes and impossible objects—that serve as delightful touches in this somewhat overstuffed film that is reminiscent of the work of German wunderkind Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Recommended. (T. Keogh)