Friends and family members gather around the sickbed of Remy (Girard) in The Barbarian Invasions

Dying to be happy
The Barbarian Invasions


Stars Remy Girard, Stephane Rousseau, Mary-Josee Croze, Dorothee Berryman. Rated MA.

Reviewer :: Lt Simone Heyer

Money gets you everything, but can it bring happiness? That's the theme of The Barbarian Invasions, in which Remy (Girard) is dying of cancer. He's in a hospital room with others waiting to die.

His son, Sebastien (Rousseau) and his girlfriend go to Montreal from London - at the insistence of Seb's mother - to keep Remy company on his final journey.

Seb isn't too fond of his womanising father. They had little to do with each other and he knows Remy caused his mum a lot of pain.

He uses his money to buy favours at the hospital, getting his dad a private room in a closed wing and buying off the union.

He gets the best doctors, flies in all Remy's old friends and lovers and does what he can to ease his dad's pain.

Nathalie (Croze) is the daughter of Louise (Berryman), one of Remy's former mistresses. Nathalie's heroin habit caused a separation with her mother.

Seb knows heroin will be the answer to Remy's pain and visits the local police station's drug squad to find out where to buy the best grade.

They palm him off, but outside one of them directs him to the artist crowd. Seb realises Nathalie is part of the crowd and has Louise track her down. Nathalie is happy to help - for the free heroin.

Seb also pays Remy's former uni students to visit the hospital.

While Remy started off dying alone, Seb has everything that's important to Remy brought to his hospital room.

This movie is a winner, perhaps because it's French-Canadian, not French.

It has the artistic elements and charm of a French film, but the Canadian aspect has evened the tone from eccentric bizarre to subtle art house.

It deals with death and dying, family and how a person's past catches up with them at the end.

Simone rates this movie 4 out of 5