With Canvas, director Joseph Greco attempts to explore the side effects of mental illness by focusing on John Marino (Joe Pantoliano), a man struggling with his wife Mary’s (Marcia Gay Harden) disintegrating mental state. Here he must assume the roles of carer, parent, employee and husband, while the pair’s son (Devon Gearhart) grapples with his mother’s absence and his father’s inability to fill the gap.
The use of subdued Florida suburbia as a backdrop is ideal for keeping this narrative relevant, touching and ultimately sincere. That groundswell, however, is lost whenever 12-year-old actor Gearhart ventures out on his own, as his too-trained background becomes evident, and moments of sincerity suddenly have less to do with him behaving naturally than with how he thinks someone should act, in such a way that would be hard to swallow even in a telemovie.
It does little to help Gearhart that Harden and Pantoliano are so convincing in their own roles; Joey Pants plays the everyman dad, and hopeful victim, perfectly, while Harden’s character is often over-dramatised, but comes through when it counts through sheer intimacy of performance. The unfulfilled promises of unpredictability are also frustrating, as the film’s status quo is at its most damaged at the beginning of the film, and the following ninety minutes of reparation never once stray from its inevitable destination. While the film is a brave look at an often forgotten struggle, it is too quick to offset the true gravity of the issue with unconvincing soap opera moments that ensure the film never reaches its potential.
Despite these flaws, Canvas could be, to many, an important, likeable film – although it might be better left for those with limited expectations.
Though boasting strong, believable performances from Joe Pantoliano and Marcia Gay Harden, Canvas is let down by the poor performance of child actor Devon Gearhart and the predictability of the plot.
Filmink 3/5
