(IMAGE: Rebirth Films)
Rebirth Films, 2021. 100 minutes. Drama.
Grade: 2 out of 4
A boy stares in horror. Another boy, his face bloodied, points a gun. In a quick couple of cuts, the armed youth sits in a cell. Another couple, and 25 years have been spanned, and both are middle-aged. Jared (Glen Gould) a Native man with closed, timid body language, decorates his prison cell with the endless surreal drawings he produces from a small sketchbook. Sergei (Pasha Ebrahami), a deep-voiced, decisive dad, decorates his own walls in a different way, with mathematical equations all over large whiteboards. Somehow, he has even gotten his young son into the topic via a wrestling superhero called Math Man. The title of the movie, 8:37 Rebirth, describes the moment on the clock that one shooting changed at least two lives for good.
The time has come for Jared’s release, and not even on parole, which he never applied for. A model inmate and a broken, quiet man, he served his full sentence with no complaints, swearing he doesn’t really know what the word “rehabilitation” means. Sergei, however, does a whole different kind of swearing when receives the obligatory legal notice that Jared’s getting out. His life was ruined – passive voice intentional – all those years ago, and he’s not over it. Nor will he ever be. Like A Beautiful Mind, minus any trace of beauty, he begins to lose himself in the equations.
Jared just wants to live in his quiet new apartment doing his painting, and driving a cab to make money. But his landlord, the aptly named Houseman (Daniel Lillford) seems quick to judge, and neither Sergei nor his short-fused cop friend John (Mark A. Owen) believes that Jared’s no longer a threat. John, however, has his own problems, chief of which is being in denial about his imminent divorce.
At the risk of broadly stereotyping, a Hollywood take on this material would likely devolve into fisticuffs and physically dangerous ante-upping by the mid-point. But as all the “soreys” clearly indicate from the getgo, this is Canada. Folks have access to handguns, but it’s way more shocking when they show up. And most of the ante-upping occurs inside Sergei and John’s own heads, as their inability to find acceptance veers into irrational madness. Jared, who very much accepts his situation, wins over his new art teacher and cranky landlord just by keeping to himself and staying polite.
The portraits of extreme reaction are certainly believable, but the compelling reasons to watch them, aren’t, necessarily. One gets the impression that director Juanita Peters thinks all of the not-much-happening scenes of both principals living out their lives are laden with foreboding and meaning, yet in many cases, they just feel like time passing as usual. In rare moments when we learn new information about the crime from long ago, what it entailed, and how nobody was ever going to be unscathed, it adds power to the portrayals. But otherwise, it all feels like a buildup that never actually builds – it picks a low-level of intensity and stays there, biding its time. Say what you will about a potential Hollywood version – think Changing Lanes, maybe – but it would make every moment count towards the larger story.
Gould, who looks nothing like the actor portraying his child self, does the most here by doing the least, putting a lifetime of wanting to be ignored into his slumped shoulders and downward look. When a rare smile or joke slips out it’s like a splash of bright color on his canvas. When he snaps and smashes his literal canvases, it feels completely out of character, but maybe that’s the point, though it plays like a red herring, suggesting for a split-second that those judging Jared a psycho might be right. Ebrahami does more of a stereotypical dude-going-nuts performance, but he’s certainly scary.
After a whole movie trying to keep things real and restrained, it’s a bit of a shame that the ending kind-of rips off that of another film famous for playing things the exact opposite way. To say more would be to spoil, but suffice it to say I think I know who one of Peters’ favorite directors is. She’d do better to look at what makes their stories compelling throughout, rather than just the famously memorable beats. 8:37 Rebirth already evinces an ability with actors to keep things feeling real. It could use some work on keeping things engrossing.