Max

((CANADIAN))

An Astral Films release (Canada) of an Apple Pie Pictures production, with the participation of Telefilm Canada and British Columbia Film. (International sales: Norstar, Toronto.) Produced by Charles Wilkinson, Tobias Schliessler, Armand Leo. Directed, written by Wilkinson.

Andy Blake ... R.H. Thomson
Jayne Blake ... Denise Crosby
Jayne's Dad ... Walter Dalton
Doctor Kaye ... Garwin Sanford
Earl ... Don Davis
Max ... Fabio Wilkinson
Sophie ... Colleen Rennison

Vancouver-based helmer Charles Wilkinson's "Max" is a family drama that takes a predictable look at the transformation of former '60s idealists into '90s yuppies. Film, which opens Dec. 2 in Canada, will likely have a short life span in theaters before moving to the small screen.

Andy (R. H. Thomson) and Jayne Blake (Denise Crosby) are a thirtysomething couple who used to be VW van-driving, card-carrying hippies but have now settled down in the Vancouver 'burbs with good jobs, two kids and lots of dashed ideals.

Then their son Max is diagnosed with a rare immune disorder and given six months to live.

Medics mention in passing that Max's blood disease is probably due to something toxic in the environment, but they don't go into details. It's just one of several key dramatic moments that is not properly explained in the script.

In a rage, Andy packs up the car and drags his family along to start up a new life in rural B.C., far from the insidious influence of the big city.

It's back to the farm '90s-style, with Andy trying to re-create his hippie youth and provide a natural cure for Max in the process. His wife isn't so sure about all this, and much of the dramatic tension derives from her attempts to tone down his increasingly fanatical idealism.

Thomson does an admirable job of capturing Andy's descent into near madness, but it's Fabio Wilkinson, the helmer's 3-year-old son, who steals most of the scenes with a charming presence that helps lighten the somewhat overwrought melodrama of his father's writing.

Tech credits are fine throughout.

BROADWAY

Camera (color) Schliessler; editor, Gary Zubeck; music, Graeme Coleman; art direction, David Birdsall; associate producers, Tom Lightburn, Stephen Johnston; assistant director, James Marshall. Reviewed at World Film Festival, Montreal, Aug. 23, 1994. (Also in Toronto, Vancouver fests.) Running time:94 MIN.

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