Sex on the congested open road. In a nutshell, that's Ricardo Trogi's Québec-Montréal, a road trip talkie that connects several parallel stories of friends, lovers and/or colleagues traveling the 110-or-so-kilometre stretch of highway between the two cities. The first car has three guy friends on their way to catch a plane to Cuba. Two of the friends share a secret that could destroy the trio's friendship. Another car has an engaged couple moving to Montreal. They both have fears about their role in the relationship. Finally, there's a video game designer and his beautiful co-worker who are going to make a presentation together. These are the main cars in the film, although others do pop up as the story necessitates.

The influence of Denys Arcand's The Decline of the American Empire among Frech-Canadian filmmakers continues to show. Like Decline, Quebec-Montreal has little in the way of action outside of the kinky dialogue. The focuses is on a battle of the sexes of sorts as both sides seem to have different ideas about relationships and the meaning of the dirty deed itself. Of course, different people have different perspectives on sex and the seriousness of it. So the film's trio of writers (Trogi, Jean-Phillipe Pearson, Patrice Robitaille) show both extremes with some players focusing on their fantasies, others seeing sex as something completely physical without a melding of minds and some thinking sex is a passionate commitment between two (or more) people. But whereas the banter in Decline also brought in social and political ideas, Québec-Montréal seems more focused on smart and witty banter. It's more Sex in the City from both male and female points of view. And while the talking is indeed often smart and witty as it sets out to, it also becomes a little tiresome and contrived once all of the characters motivations are revealed.

Perhaps there's some significance of the highway between Quebec City and Montreal but since I've never been there, it's hard to guess. It seems like everyone's heading to Montreal but for various reasons: a presentation, to catch a flight to Cuba, to move. None really connect so I didn't get a sense that Trogi was trying to make a statement about Quebec culture. Instead the highway is simply a place that connects the various threads. Everyone's going somewhere but the conflict comes from whether or not people really want to go places and for what reason.

So what it all boils down to is that Québec-Montréal is a 90-minute collection of clever and frank dialogue about sex and relationships. The actors are charming but nothing stands out as significant or too terribly memorable other than an street sign elk coming to life and offering bartender's advice. Québec-Montréal is good at face value. Just don't expect any revelations about your own life or why someone you know acts the way they do. Instead, laugh at the moose.

©Movie Views; August 12, 2003