Falls Around Her
(Canada, 100 min.)
Written and directed by Darlene Naponse
Starring: Tantoo Cardinal, Tina Keeper, Gail Maurice, Rob
Stewart, Johnny Issaluk
Tantoo Cardinal is one of Canada’s great character actors
and she finally gets her due with Falls
Around Her. She has over 100 credits to her name in a career that’s spanned
forty years and featured an Oscar winner for Best Picture that remains one of
the defining films of the 1990s. While Dances
with Wolves remains the biggest entry of Cardinal’s résumé, too few of
Cardinal’s roles have offered much by way of screen time or narrative arcs, but
they’re always memorable highlights of the films in which she appears. It’s
astounding that her performance as Mary in Falls
Around Her is the first lead role of her career. It’s the cherry on top of
a recent hot streak that includes small but notable roles in films like Wind River, Through Black Spruce, and The Grizzlies.
Cardinal plays Mary Birchbark, a successful Anishinaabe singer who decides to end her career on a high note and retire to her home in Atikameksheng Anishnawbek First Nation in northern Ontario. Writer/director Darlene Naponse doesn’t offer much in the way of a backstory or an explanation for Mary’s choice to call it quits, aside from a pissed off manager/beau (Rob Stewart), who is clearly shocked by the French exit that Mary performs after her final show. Everything’s written on Cardinal’s face, though. The actor’s pensive and weathered visage conveys how Mary has no regrets about her success, nor with her life, but she’s tired of the grind and the demands of the job that weigh one down so many years.
Much of Falls Around
Her offers uncontrived slice of life observations of Mary rejuvenating in
the day-to-day work around her cabin. The music by Julian Cote is mellow and
evocative as it speaks to Mary’s search for peace. There are scenes of Mary
readying her cabin, hiking in the woods, or simply enjoying the balmy sensation
of the sun on her face as she looks up at the sky, seeing trees and sky instead
of condos and buildings. Naponse creates a strong sense of place as Mary
reconnects with her environment and the film subtly observes the reality of
daily life in First Nations communities as the camera takes in the poverty of
the homes and the prices of groceries that are ridiculously disproportionate
with their freshness or quality. A few efforts to inject the film with current
affairs, like a protest about a pipeline, are somewhat more contrived, but
Mary’s overall journey speaks to another urgent concern.
It’s becomes apparent that Mary is not in retirement. She’s
hiding. She’s running from something and Cardinal imbues her character with a
heartfelt weariness that tells audiences that Mary has spent too much of her
life looking over her shoulder. As she cautiously steps out into the community
by spending time with her sister Betty (Tina Keeper, with whom Cardinal has
great chemistry) and a prospective suitor/fellow performer named Albert (Jonny
Issaluk), it’s hard to mistake the evasiveness of Mary’s demeanour. She’s
always looking to get out.
As Mary’s concerns become frighteningly real, Falls Around Her sees the singer become
empowered and her refuse to play the victim. Although the film sometimes
struggles on its route to the climactic showdown between Mary and her
aggressor, the limitations of the film itself illustrate how remarkably
Cardinal can carry a story and deliver a range of depth and emotions. Cardinal
delivers in every frame of Falls Around
Her by creating a layered, soulful, and lived-in performance. It might be
the first time her name’s been atop the credits, but it won’t be the last.
Falls Around Her is
now on home video.
