Picture Claire

Somewhere in Picture Claire a good movie is hiding, like one of those "Find the Faces of the Presidents" drawings that use to be in puzzle books. I got the sense while watching it that it may not have been the cut of the film the director intended--released straight-to-DVD, it has an abrupt quality, as if a studio was trying to dump it. I suspect there was more to it.

A 2001 film from Canada, Picture Claire stars Juliette Lewis in the title role. She's a Quebecois who speaks no English, arriving in Toronto after her Montreal apartment was torched by arsonists. She is hunting an old flame, who we come to realize was really just a one-night stand, but has a lot more importance to her. While she's looking for him she runs into Mickey Rourke in a donut shop. While she's in the ladies' room, he is murdered by Gina Gershon, and the donut shop worker thinks that Lewis is the killer.

While the cops hunt for Lewis, a pair of clean-cut thugs look for Gershon. Picture Claire plays it very close to the vest with information, which can make the movie frustrating but also lends it a more moody, mysterious feel. We don't find out why Lewis' apartment was torched until late, and then it's in a throwaway line. But that, coupled with Lewis being unable to understand or be understood, makes the viewer feel just a little out-of-kilter.

McDonald applies a heavy hand, particularly in the use of split-screen images, but also has some lovely set pieces, such as two separate scenes in which Lewis is hiding inside someone's apartment while the owner is there, and another when a character frantically paws through broken glass to find diamonds. As fine an eye as McDonald has, though, the story never quite justifies all his hard work. Perhaps there is a superior director's cut out there.