I was expecting a better film (possible SPOILERS)
Don't get me wrong, kudos to Dolan for trying to do something different to his usual stuff....but....on leaving the cinema, I thought 'meh, was that the big deal?'.
I don't know, maybe Tom a the Farm will grow on me.....but I just didn't find that interesting, and that means the film wasn't entirely successful imo. It wasn't suspenseful enough, it wasn't scary enough, it wasn't romantic enough. For example, I think the film needed some flashback scenes pertaining to Tom's life with his boyfriend. There was a brief one of them singing karaoke, but you couldn't see his face. The film would be better if there were more flashbacks and if you got to see how his boyfriend looked, if only very briefly. I'm saying this because at the end of the day I didn't careless about Tom, and more importantly, I didn't believe his grief. I know the film is based on a play, but Dolan could have taken the gist of the play and made something great with it. Something original. I know the play/film deals with homophobia, oppression, etc, but so have many other films, and much more successfully imo.
I also didn't like the music. There was this awful French song (The windmill of my heart - or something like that) at the beginning, so awful that it was obvious that the reason it was in the film was because of the meaning of the lyrics, but the lyrics were not even subtitled, so unless you have real good French, you wouldn't have a clue what it was about. Why subtitle the film and not subtitle the lyrics?
As for the tango scene I've read so much about in reviews....believe me it was nothing to write home about. I had expected something more.
Another thing that got my goat....what happened to Caleb Landry Jones? He was meant to be in the film, and was one of the main reasons I wanted to see the film (apart from seeing Xavier Dolan acting again). I thought he was going to play the part of the dead boyfriend maybe (in flashbacks), or some other important part....but he wasn't even in it. If Dolan thinks he'll just stick some deleted scene of him in the DVD version and that's that, well he's wrong. He should have put him in the theatre release version....that's what I paid my theatre ticket to see. What a wasted opportunity not to give Caleb a visible role!!!!
On the PLUS SIDE, it was nice to see Dolan acting again, even though he looked awful for most of the film. And i'm not talking about his bruised face. Did he really have to have that awful hairstyle, like a poodle? He didn't look at all like a guy from an ad agency from Montreal, with that horrid leather jacket and 'the poodle'. I know he was probably trying to prove he's not a narcissist who is only interested in looking good on screen, but hey, you would never have seen James Dean with a poodle on his head. He could have chosen another look.
For me, Heartbeats is Dolan's best film, followed by Laurence Anyways. Both films had his style stamped all over them, and this is what a young director should aim for, to have a STYLE that is uniquely theirs. At Once this style is cemented with a capital C, he can deconstruct it and do whatever he wants with it....but I don't think Dolan has reached this stage yet. He needs to cement the style that annoys critics, take it up 10 notches, and slap them in the face with it. He needs to be BRAVER. I guess I would just love him to make another film like Heartbeats because it ticked all the right boxes: unique, great imagery, great dialogue, great music, great actors that were perfect for their roles, etc. Maybe it wasn't 'deep', but it perfectly portrayed what falling in love is like and how unrequited love feels, and it did so with style...Dolan's style. Tom at the Farm could have been directed by anyone.
6.5/10. I'm glad I saw it, and like I said...it might grow on me.... but I wouldn't pay to see it again (unlike other films...for example I saw Heartbeats three times).