Director: Jacob Tierney
Writer: Jacob Tierney
Producer: Kevin Tierney
Starring: Jay Baruchel, Geneviève Bujold, Emily Hampshire, Colm Feore, Saul Rubinek, Kaniehtiio Horn, Ricky Mabe
MPAA Rating: PG
Running time: 120 min.

(3.5/5)

Leon Bronstein is a visionary, a revolutionary and a high school student. He also thinks he’s the reincarnation of Leon Trotsky.

That’s the basic premise of Jacob Tierney’s The Trotsky which stars Jay Baruchel as Leon, the high school student that goes around causing all sorts of trouble for himself by trying to make the world a more equal place. It starts with a hunger strike gone wrong at his father’s factory which lands him in, gasp!, public school where he teams up with the ineffective student union to start a mini revolution. After all, the school administration, particularly Mrs. Danvers (who Leon has quite a selection of wicked nick names for) and Principal Berkhoff (played by the illustrious and always fabulous Colm Feore, seem to be gunning for a few specific students.

With the help of his student union members Caroline and Tony (played by The Wild Hunt duo (Kaniehtiio Horn and Ricky Mabe), his new friend Skip, his soon to be wife Alexandra and a former lawyer and leader of the Canadian Communist Party, Leon sets in motion a series of events in support of the forming of a student union at Montreal West. Each of Leon’s attempts are more outlandish than the last with the final stand taking the proverbial cake.

Tierney’s film features some great performances from everyone involved, particularly Horn and Mabe who put forth performances that are very different from the other film they appeared in this year. It was also nice to see Baruchel lead the comedic charge, playing the straight man wonderfully in the face of hilarious plotting and outcomes.

But a film can only get so far on the strength of its actors and what pushes Tierney’s film forward is the is smart and amusing script which, though it lacks any serious gut holding laughs, manages to keep the comedy coming for the entire running time. There are also the fast paced quips and comebacks present at every turn which keep the viewer alert and always on the look out for the next zinger (and there are quite a few).

Definitely not the kind of film everyone can get behind, The Trotsky is much too smart and demure for fans of the typical Hollywood comedy but Tierney’s little slice of comedy is fun while still getting out a few precious ideas about living in a democracy and not just what that means for us but what it expects of us.

The Trotsky has been available on DVD from Alliance Films in Canada since Tuesday, October 5th. The film will be available on DVD in the US on December 14th.

DVD Extras: Director’s commentary, bloopers, deleted scenes, and a making-of featurette.