Sept. 23 5 p.m. Plaza Theatre and
Sept. 27 7 p.m. Eau Claire Cinema
That IMDb lists 15 other films with Guilt ’s title — including at least three others this year alone — doesn’t suggest great originality an impression that’s not entirely wrong. Both in its broad themes and its specific focus Guilt follows a trail long since blazed but it makes for a gripping journey all the same.
Gabriel (Pierre-Luc Lafontaine) and Yves (Émile Mailhiot) are best friends growing up in a small Quebec town. Drunk and high on ’shrooms one cold winter’s night they break into a house in search of shelter but soon find themselves tearing it apart for no particular reason. Confronted by a man who’s overheard the commotion the duo inadvertently knock him over when they try to make a break for it causing what they later discover was a fatal injury. They agree never to speak of it again but Gabriel predictably starts to suffer from the titular emotion.
Although it’s a little too neat that Gabriel a gentle artistic type is the first one to crack Lafontaine is consistently believable and his scene with the dead man’s unknowing widow is heart-wrenching. Tough guy jock Yves is less likable but it’s possible to feel both repelled by his callousness and sympathetic to his underlying motivations. And Genevieve Rioux scores as Gabriel’s police officer mom a woman faced with a horrible choice between her son and the law.
Guilt shows that a familiar plot isn’t necessarily an impediment to a good film. If it’s a story worth telling there’s no limit to how many times it can be told.
