Review: Don McKellar’s Through Black Spruce proves as problematic as the Joseph Boyden novel it’s adapting GlobeArts
To tell the novel’s two intertwined stories – one focusing on Will , an alcoholic Moosonee bush pilot who’s run afoul of drug-runners, the other on Will’s niece Annie , who’s searching for her missing sister in Toronto – requires an assured directorial sensibility and a sincere understanding of Indigenous history and trauma.
Annie's story focuses on the young Cree woman's mission to find her sister after she goes missing in Toronto.So: Cree producer and co-star Tina Keeper should indeed be commended for pushing the project forward for the past half-decade, for committing to telling stories “from my region, a story of women in my family,”.
But there is purpose in asking why it is through McKellar’s eyes that we’re seeing this vision of missing Indigenous women, of addiction-ravaged families, of impoverished communities. The director himself reminds viewers of this question, popping up briefly as a Toronto arts journalist who serves as an elbow to the audience’s ribs. Self-awareness only briefly intersects with sincerity, though, and the film consistently feels like it’s dodging questions it purports to be asking of others.
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