Nurse.Fighter.Boy.

Nurse.Fighter.Boy. Charles Officer, director & script. Starring: Clark Johnson (Silence), Karen LeBlanc (Jude), Daniel J. Gordon (Ciel)

One of the most acclaimed Canadian films at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), Nurse.Fighter.Boy. is about to be hit the mainstream film circuit. (Like Wendy and Lucy, it will hit the screens next week — along with the 3-D animated fantasy feature Coraline and Woody Allen’s Cassandra’s Dream.) The first feature film by the talented writer/director/actor Charles Officer, it won a prestigious place in TIFF’s Canada’s Top Ten and is one of the first of that group to garner a commercial release.

The film is consciously poetic — beautifully shot with a melodramatic plot that is deliberately non-realistic. It’s about a trio who are destined to meet and love each other. The Nurse is everyone’s dream of a mother/nurturer/lover. She’s the Boy’s mother and the Fighter’s lover — but she has to fight her own battles to save her life from a devastating disease.

The Fighter is a brave, quiet man who has suffered much pain but endured everything life has thrown at him with dignity. When he meets the Nurse, the connection between them is instantaneous. But he has to fight the demons of his past to maintain the purity that this new intense affair demands of him.

The Boy is a questing artistic soul. He has friends both young and old but his closest mate is his mother. His question — and the one the film inevitably poses is: can he love The Fighter as well as The Nurse?

And can The Fighter love The Boy?

Nurse.Fighter.Boy. has a script that is more of a sonnet than a down-to-earth scenario. Charles Officer’s production for The Canadian Film Centre, the fillm arrives with high expectations. The acting of the three leads is remarkable. And the look of the film is fine.

Can a well crafted but non-realistic film be a hit? This reviewer isn’t sure but does think that all interested Canucks should see Nurse.Fighter.Boy. — at least on DVD.