fludd.org - Movie Review

As you all know it, Roy Dupuis (Mémoire Affective) is back for a second turn as Maurice Richard, a very famous Quebecker hockey player who symbolize the awakening of the people that was once called the “French Canadians” before 1967. Although it would have probably taken about seven movies or more to present Maurice Richard’s life, Ken Scott (La Grande Séduction), the movie’s scriptwriter, certainly comes up with a very inspiring script that any Canadian out there will definitely appreciate at its fullest potential, even though some people might ask for more.

The movie follows Maurice Richard from his young days of being a junior hockey player to the day when a riot took place in front of the Forum of Montreal, the Montreal Canadians’ former home arena, in 1955. Besides being extremely interesting, Maurice Richard does offer a brilliant script that starts to suffer from a slow pace near the end, but it only last for a few minutes. Generally speaking, there are not a lot of things that should be said about the script. In short, it’s just impeccable.

Historically speaking, it should be said that besides being very captivating to the core, the movie Maurice Richard hopefully offers a quite precise historical presentation of what was going on back then in Canada. Since it is a Quebecker movie, I believe that whether you are a Francophone or Anglophone, you won’t be harmed while watching this movie. In fact, director Charles Binamé successfully manages to avoid to fall in the trap called “non-objectivity”, because as opposed to what certain people might think, the story is decidedly presented by Quebeckers, but Maurice Richard is hopefully devoid of racism and rancour against the English Canadians. All in all, there are no villains, although those who have studied Canadian and Quebecker History are aware that before the Quiet Revolution (1960), it was so hard for Quebeckers to succeed in life, because most Quebeckers were poor, back then. For those of you who are not Canadians, let me tell you that there were a time when certain English Canadians (who mostly live in Montreal) were beating the hell of out many Quebeckers by exploiting them as workers, be it in factories, shops or anywhere else. Nowadays, Maurice Richard is perceived as the man who stood up against the Anglophones and the ignitor of the Quiet Revolution, but the movie doesn’t try to over-praise Maurice Richard or to go beyond what he really is, thanks to Ken Scott’s objectivity and neutrality.

As a touching movie, Maurice Richard’s main strength is especially the interest that the movie viewers develop for most of the characters. As Maurice Richard for a second time (the first time, it was on TV), Roy Dupuis (Mémoire Affective) really shows us why he’s the man of the situation when it comes to portraying Maurice Richard. Seriously, watching Dupuis in action is like watching the real Maurice Richard. Although he doesn’t speak a lot, you can almost see fire burning in Roy Dupuis’s eyes as if he became a man invaded by a smouldering desire to win and wipe anything that he finds on his way.

Even though he’s not the movie’s main actor, Stephen McHattie, the actor who’s portraying Dick Irvin, the Montreal Canadians’ coach, back then, evidently claims the spotlight and attention, in his of own right. McHattie delivers a riveting performance that most actors wouldn’t be able to deliver with passion. In his days of being a hockey coach, Dick Irvin was known as a man full of pride who, besides having a visceral resentment for defeat, never considered a second place as a comfortable berth. While playing Dick Irvin, Stephen McHattie wonderfully depicts Irvin’s two-faced personality: a man who is as severe as a drill instructor and at the same time, a man who does show his admiration for Maurice Richard, since he will eventually recognize that he has always been rude with Richard. In fact, the most moving scenes involving Dick Irvin, are the ones in which you see him subtly starting to show respect to Maurice Richard and a willingness to protect him, since Richard is one of the players who contributed to transform the Montreal Canadians into a virtually unbeatable team in the 1950s.

Despite being only supporting actors, those who support Roy Dupuis are so excellent. Julie Le Breton (La Peau Blanche), as Lucille Norchet, Maurice Richard’s wife, is impeccable and she’s really the kind of wife who definitely wants to stay behind her husband no matter what happens. As Émile “Butch” Bouchard, Patrice Robitaille (Horloge Biologique) plays the character who shakes Maurice Richard up, in his own way, as much as Dick Irvin, because Bouchard will have a certain influence on Richard, just like Dick Irvin. Other great performance can be seen from Michel Barette (as Georges Norchet, Lucille's father), Diane Lavallée (Alice Norchet, Georges Norchet's wife) and Benoît Girard (as Paul St-Georges, the journalist who writes columns for Maurice Richard in a newspaper).

Finally, if you’re looking to see a bunch of scenes of hockey match, then you should look somewhere else. Maurice Richard is globally not a movie that uniquely shows hockey and I am categorically convinced that this movie is not only one of the best French language Canadian movies of all time, but also one of the best Canadian movie of all time. Even though the script has a quite simple structure, Maurice Richard is a movie that is memorable because of the majestic performance from the well selected cast, especially from Roy Dupuis, as Maurice Richard, and Stephen McHattie, as Dick Irvin, and also because the movie attempts, with great success, to present Maurice Richard as the man behind the legend that is still revered by Quebeckers without going beyond what he really is. Before I finish this review, let me tell you that the movie's pièce de résistance is the scene in which Maurice Richard is beating the hell out of a racist hockey player from the New York Rangers called Bob Dill, who is played by none other than Sean Avery...

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