MOVIE REVIEWS: ARMENIAN QUEST
By Deirdre Swain

Now Toronto, Canada
April 12 2007

JOURNEY TO ARMENIA (Robert Guediguian). 125 minutes. Subtitled. Opens
Friday (April 13) at Canada Square. Rating: NNN

Anna ( Ariane Ascaride ) is a brusque French cardiologist whose ailing
father ( Marcel Bluwal ) disappears to his homeland of Armenia before
he can undergo heart surgery. Anna follows him, visiting the country
for the first time.

As quests go, Anna’s is vague and unfocused, but it and a subplot
involving black-market meds, an exotic dancer and a former general
( Gerard Meylan ) are really just a pretext for gorgeous scenery and
history in thistravelogue about beleaguered Armenia.

The dialogue is pretty exposition-heavy. The locals are continually
explaining things to Anna (although it’s refreshing to hear the
merits of communism, capitalism and other "isms" discussed in an
even-handed way). Anna is imperious and hard to like, so Ascaride,
who also co-wrote the film, deserves credit for making us care about
what happens to her.

As the story unfolds, Anna and the audience are drawn in by the history
of a country, once the nexus of all the great European empires, that’s
currently recovering from Soviet-style communism and yet retains its
character and language.

Maybe that’s the reason for Anna’s Gallic version of the ugly American
tourist: Armenia and its people seem even more beautiful by contrast.

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