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Joan Chen in Montreal, My Beautiful.Filmoption/Supplied
Montreal, My Beautiful
Written and directed by Xiaodan He
Starring Joan Chen, John Xu and Charlotte Aubin
Classification N/A; 117 minutes
Opens in select theatres Feb. 13
No one in the Canadian film industry likes to talk about it all that much, but so much of the sector is dependent on non-Canadian talent, in producers securing a “name” that will trigger funding from financiers who are (not incorrectly) concerned that audiences won’t come out unless there is the comforting promise of familiarity. It isn’t that Canada is bereft of talented homegrown actors – of course, it is just the opposite – but Canadian movies, in an ideal situation, don’t stay inside the country, either. And the more worldwide appeal a lead performer possesses, the easier it is to sell their project abroad as producers seek out international partners to cobble together financing.
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Charlotte Aubin and Chen in Montreal, My Beautiful.Filmoption/Supplied
That’s just the game – but it isn’t the only reason that the Chinese-American actress Joan Chen was snagged to star in the new Canadian film Montreal, My Beautiful. Certainly, Chen’s name and reputation – stretching from The Last Emperor and Twin Peaks to Lust, Caution and 2024’s wonderful Didi – was likely essential to getting the Montreal-based director Xiaodan He’s film off the ground. But the actress’s powerful and fiercely committed performance is also key to unlocking the potential of He’s film, which loses focus every second Chen is off the screen.
Set in and around the residential streets of Montreal, the film centres on Chen’s portrayal of Feng, a Chinese immigrant who, despite living in the city for the past decade and a half, has yet to learn all that much French. After her teenage daughter Joy (Pei Yao Xu) gets fed up with acting as her mother’s translator – a responsibility that requires increasingly awkward conversations, such as Feng’s visit to her local doctor, where she complains about sexual issues with her husband Jun (John Xu) – Feng commits herself to becoming a more out-and-out Quebecker.
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Aubin in Montreal, My Beautiful.Filmoption/Supplied
But Feng’s troubles with language mask far larger problems, such as her desire to escape her suffocating marriage and embrace a queer sexuality that she has suppressed for her entire life.
Enter Camille (Charlotte Aubin), a local barista who doesn’t have much of her life together other than the fact that she’s comfortable with her own desires. After Feng and Camille meet on a dating app – something of a stretch given what the film tells us about Feng’s experience navigating a world outside the dépanneur that she operates with Jun – the two women begin to open up to one another in ways that feel alternately startling and predictable.
Every time that He’s film gets stuck in a narrative or emotional rut, though, Chen lifts the entire thing back up to a level that balances sensuality with sincerity. Watching her navigate Feng’s journey from roles of repression – wife, mother, shopkeeper – to a free, weightless person pursuing nothing more than pure desire can be a captivating, even beguiling experience. However hard He and her producers worked to secure Chen’s participation, it was worth it.
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