Elephant Song (2014)

A psychiatrist is drawn into a complex mind game when he questions a disturbed patient about the disappearance of a colleague.

Director:

Charles Binamé

Writers:

Nicolas Billon, Nicolas Billon (play)

Stars:

Bruce Greenwood, Xavier Dolan, Carrie-Anne Moss

3 wins & 11 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Bruce Greenwood	...	Dr. Toby Greene
Xavier Dolan	...	Michael Aleen
Carrie-Anne Moss	...	Olivia
Guy Nadon	...	Dr. Craig Jones
Colm Feore	...	Dr. James Lawrence
Catherine Keener	...	Nurse Susan Peterson
Gianna Corbisiero	...	Florence Da Costa
Cindy Sampson	...	Christelle
Larry Day	...	Sergeant Taylor
Melody Godin-Cormier	...	Amy Greene
Mark Donker	...	Jakobus Aleen (as Marc Donker)
Matt Holland	...	Bruce
Enrique Pérez-Mesa	...	Marcus
Ethan Bolduc	...	Michael, 5 Years Old
Germano Santana	...	Michael, 7 Years Old

Storyline

It's January, 1966 at St. Christina's Psychiatric Hospital in Northwestern Ontario. Dr. Toby Greene and Nurse Susan Peterson are individually being interviewed by Dr. Craig Jones, one of the hospital's administrators, about the incident that occurred just before Christmas, the day that their colleague, Dr. James Lawrence, inexplicably did not show up for work. As Dr. Lawrence disappeared the day before during a session with one of his regular patients, a young man named Michael Aleen, the belief among some is that Michael may have had something to do with Dr. Lawrence's disappearance. That day, Dr. Greene took over Dr. Lawrence's patient-load, which included a session with Michael to try and discover if he indeed had some nefarious role in Dr. Lawrence's disappearance. Dr. Greene did not know Michael at all, and was unable to read his case file before meeting with Michael. Regardless, Dr. Greene believed he could read Michael and glean as much from his lies as from his truths. ...

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [Japan]

Country:

Canada

Language:

English French Italian German Latin

Release Date:

26 February 2015 (Netherlands)

Also Known As:

Elefánt dal

Filming Locations:

Montréal, Québec, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

$6,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Melenny Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

110 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Philip Seymour Hoffman and Colin Firth were approached before Bruce Greenwood was cast.

User Reviews

Quite Good

The movie is interesting. The story keeps you guessing and the 'mystery' of missing doctor is good since the crazy man / boy is giving out the details, so you can never be sure whether it is true or not, or is he playing game.

I think that Xavier Dolan was really good at the role of mentally deranged Michael. The role suits him really good. Don't know why, but in some scenes I pictured him in some movies/series based on Marcel Proust's book. He would be perfect for one of the roles of Proust.

I did not really like the ending. It was ...hmmm ... too ordinary. And you see in the end that there was no mystery at all about the disappearance of the doctor. Also, the final scenes were kinda ...weak. But, all in all, quite good, except the last 3,4 minutes.

Eight from me.