Walken brings otherwordly charm to the prairies

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This article was published 08/10/2020 (2161 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The original title of the Manitoba-lensed movie Percy was Percy Vs. Goliath, being the story of an elderly Saskatchewan canola farmer who nearly lost his farm when it was discovered some of his crop contained genes copyrighted by bio-tech agri-giant Monsanto, which sued the farmer for the apparently unintentional infringement.

The title was scrapped along the way, possibly because the movie’s corporate nemesis doesn’t really exist onscreen. To reflect the actual movie, a more accurate title would have had to have been Percy Vs. Goliath’s Team of Expensive Lawyers.

Percy, one supposes, was more to the point.

Despite the familiar prairie locations — Manitoba locations included Stonewall, Elie, Selkirk, Rockwood and Starbuck — there is a certain otherworldly Hollywood gloss to it. This is thanks mostly to Christopher Walken in the role of Percy Schmeiser.

For many, the proper fit for the role was always Indian Head, Saskatchewan-born actor Eric Peterson, who played the role in the 2016 verbatim play Seeds at Prairie Theatre Exchange in 2016. Possibly, one recalls his character Oscar in Corner Gas in forming the image of a Saskatchewan scrapper, but Peterson’s straight-ahead style would seem a better fit than Walken’s Queens, N.Y.-flavoured inflections.

Yet one can’t deny Walken brings a certain gravitas to the role. Walken here relies more on his sheer presence to portray the world-weariness of a 70-something farmer who, on top of the usual climactic travails of the business, now must take on a small army of corporate lawyers in a fight to preserve the age-old seed-saving tradition of farming. In concert with director Clark Johnson, Walken eschews the usual eccentric tics and pauses we have come to expect from a Walken performance. This is as straight a performance we’ve seen from Walken since … well, maybe ever.

He’s got some solid support, including Roberta Maxwell as Percy’s wife Louise, Zach Braff playing both funny and desperate as Percy’s in-over-his-head small-town lawyer Jackson Weaver and Adam Beach, moving as Percy’s supportive neighbour Alton Kelly. Less helpful is Christina Ricci as Rebecca, a professional anti-GMO activist who offers Percy a way to fund his fight against Monsanto with speaking engagements around the world. Ricci usually has a nice edge to her performances, but it’s dulled here. As an earnest do-gooder, she is simply miscast.

Shot by Luc Montpellier (Take This Waltz, The Saddest Music in the World), the cinematography balances big and impressive prairie vistas with homely farmhouse interiors to subtle effect.

But the movie’s overall spirit is somehow rousing, notwithstanding Walken’s underplaying of the oft-fiery Schmeiser. Walken reflects that measured quality of a farmer who understands agriculture is the ultimate long game.

Maybe that comes from having a long and storied career. But it kind of … works.

 

randall.king@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @FreepKing