Percy: Simply told, reality-based Canuck drama gives the Davids of the world the Goliath-fighter they want
By Thom Ernst
Rating: B
In Percy, director Clark Johnson tells a David and Goliath story about the legal battle between a large canola conglomerate and a reticent, veteran farmer. It's a true story insomuch as it's a story greatly sided in favour of the small guy.
Read our interview with Percy director Clark Johnson
Of course, it is. Can you imagine a film that champions a big industry's right to sue a simple prairie farmer? It would make for a fun experiment, but likely draw the same visceral reaction that the fictional audience in Mel Brooks' The Producers gave when watching a production of Max Bialystock’s Springtime For Hitler.
Christopher Walken is a Saskatchewan farmer who takes a stand in Percy.
To that effect, the truth or non-truths in Johnson's film are correctly structured for storytelling and not designed for courtroom evidence. And yet Percy, a relatively peaceful and unassuming movie, has reignited a 23-year-old controversy. I can't comment on whether the film unjustly fuels one side of the argument against the other, or properly sets the record straight. But is the film effective in serving up an engaging if not somewhat quiet drama? It is.
The facts, as I know them, are limited. But here they are nonetheless: In 1997, Percy Schmeiser, a Saskatchewan farmer, is accused by Monsanto Canada of planting a hybrid canola seed belonging to the conglomerate without their permission. Schmeiser retaliates, claiming that the crops grew independently from anything he planted or intended to plant. The case dragged Schmeiser into public attention and onto the radar of folks who felt similarly bamboozled by legal rigamarole and high-end lawyers.
Johnson's film is unreservedly on Schmeiser's team; good news for those rooting for the folk hero, bad news for those siding with the courts. But when pushed to comment on the film’s bias, Johnson responds by categorizing Percy's story as a story about being bullied and fighting back. Standing up to oppression always makes good drama.
PROUDLY SUPPORTS ORIGINAL-CIN
The bad guys here are Monsanto (now Bayer) represented through the smug demeanor of corporate lawyer, Rick Aarons (Martin Donovan). The good guys are Percy's ineffective small-town lawyer, Jackson Weaver (Zach Braff), and Rebecca Salcau (Christina Ricci), a representative from a grass-roots organization with a vested interest in seeing Percy win.
And then there is Percy, played with uncommon restraint by Christopher Walken. Walken is an interesting casting choice, although it is doubtful any independent filmmaker would turn down the opportunity to have someone of Walken's status in their film.
In playing Percy, Walken tones down the nervous energy that has dominated many of his previous roles, and he manages to level out the identifiable rhythm of his delivery. Walken gives Percy the quiet dignity befitting a farmer who never, as Johnson's story tells it, expected to be anything more than a farmer. As Percy's wife (Roberta Maxwell) points out to Salcau, "Getting his driver's license photo is too much spotlight for Percy."
The real Percy Schmeiser might not be the folk hero the film wants him to be, then again, maybe he is; The truth might be buried under the film’s dramatic privileges. But the real magic in Johnson's film is its simplicity, and in creating characters that draw audiences into a story that keeps them there until the end.
Percy is directed by Clark Johnson and stars Christopher Walken, Roberta Maxwell, Christina Ricci, and Zach Braff. Percy opens October 9 in Toronto (Varsity, Varsity VIP, Yonge-Eglinton & Queensway), Vancouver, Winnipeg, Regina and Saskatoon.