A SENTIMENTAL TRAVELOGUE – JOURNEY TO ARMENIA
Rick Groen
Globe and Mail, Canada
April 13 2007
**½
Directed by Robert Guediguian
Written by Robert Guediguian, Ariane Ascaride and Marie Desplechin
Starring Ariane Ascaride and Gerard Meylan
Classification: NA
The first cliche appears early: Anna is a cardiologist who knows
everything about the heart’s mechanics and nothing of its poetry. A
cold fish, spawned in the port of Marseilles and French to the bone,
she has a tense relationship with her Armenian-born father and no
relationship at all with her ethnic heritage. So when dad, ailing and
in his 11th hour, secretly flies back to his homeland, cliche No. 2
isn’t long in following: Getting on a plane to track him down, Anna
"returns" to a country she has never seen, to a culture she doesn’t
know, to a language she doesn’t speak; and there, seeking her father,
she finds, yes, her own true self.
But if this roots saga is trite at the centre, Journey to Armenia
does manage to find considerable interest at the edges of the frame.
Shooting on location in Yerevan and its vicinity, with the snow-capped
peak of Mount Ararat shimmering elusively in the misted background,
director Robert Guediguian lets his camera rove over the sights
while the script delves into the sociology. Consequently, what the
film lacks in credible drama it makes up as a crisp travelogue —
pack it with your Frommer’s and you’ll be good to go.
Indeed, when Anna (Ariane Ascaride) disembarks, she’s immediately
surrounded by a host of guides, all of them eager to show off the
different hues of a poor but proud country. And a country, like so
many these days, in a state of confused flux, having traded in the
closed fist of communism for the callous hand of business run riot.
"It’s all business," says one shady entrepreneur, explaining a market
as black as the profiteers who run it, a place where everything from
warplanes to prescription medicine has a price — and those who can’t
pay must do without.
So much for Armenia’s perils, but what of its pride? Well, a
white-haired chauffeur drives Anna to the food stalls for a taste
of the cuisine, on to a hair salon for a spot of female bonding,
and finally to a medieval church for a peek into the past. Then a
handsome war hero (Gerard Meylan) commandeers a helicopter for an
aerial trek over "the land of stones," alighting long enough to tour
an even older temple to early Christianity. "Don’t you feel just a
bit Armenian here?" he asks. In response, Anna’s hard heart reveals
a few vulnerable cracks, and darned if some long-lost feelings don’t
begin to settle in.
So does the contrived plot, unfortunately. At this point, it introduces
a bit of hokum involving a pretty young stripper and an especially
deadly capitalist, leading to gunplay in the streets and the unlikely
revelation that Doctor Anna is as adept with a pistol as she is with
a scalpel.
Happily, the contrivance over, we’re soon back on the sentimental
journey, off to a remote village for the climactic father/daughter
reunion. Anti-climactic, actually. The meeting scene feels rushed,
inadvertently understated, and the story’s long wick burns down onto
wet powder — Anna has her revelation, but it’s an epiphany without
a pop.
Yet isn’t that always the way with trips. You arrive with time as
your friend, meandering here, tarrying there, and then the clock
turns brutal and the ending gets rushed. Journey to Armenia is a
travelogue that even mimics a traveller’s bad habits. Still, with
stuff to learn and sights to see, there’s no disputing the value of
the experience, which brings us to the final cliche: Travel is an
education in itself. Hop aboard, mes amis.
y/LAC.20070413.ARMEN13/TPStory/TPEntertainment/Mov ies/
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