Fans of gay Canadian filmmaker Xavier Dolan will get a chance to see his 2014 film “Tom at the Farm” at International House, 3701 Chestnut St., at 7 p.m. Oct. 2. This drama concerns Tom (Dolan), a gay man with unruly bleached-blonde hair, visiting his late lover Guillaume’s family out in the countryside. Agathe (Lise Roy), the matriarch, accepts Tom, but she is unaware of his relationship to her son. Guillaume’s brother, Francis (Pierre-Yves Cardinal, equally creepy and campy), however, is less welcoming. He threatens Tom, and tells him that he best not disclose Guillaume’s homosexuality to Agathe. While Tom is unnerved, he eventually enters into a queer Stockholm-syndrome-kind of relationship with Francis.
“Tom at the Farm” is frustrating because the characters are complete ciphers, and no amount of overacting or confessional speeches illuminate why Tom, Francis or Agathe behave the way they do. Moreover, Dolan never effectively ratchets up the dramatic tension. Tom frantically packs his bags to leave the farm at one point. Ominous music swells. He steps outside … and then … nothing. Scenes of Francis menacing Tom play up the homoeroticism, which provides some interest, but much of the film is strangely enervating, failing to engage visually, emotionally or dramatically.