Genre: Drama
Director: Jean-Marc Vallee
Writer: Mo Buck
Based on the novel by Jocelyn Saucier
Cast: Harvey Keitel, Michael McKean, Charlotte Rampling, Isabelle Huppert, Andy Serkis, Josh Hamilton, Jon Voight
Plot: Boychuk (Jon Voight), Charlie (Harvey Keitel) and Tom (Michael McKean) are fishing in their canoe, listening to the sound of nature. Boychuk’s heavy breathing breaks the silence, but his old pals, Charlie and Tom don’t hear it anymore, they’ve become accustomed to the whistling sound. Boychuk asks them if they have any regrets in life now that nearing the end of the line. Tom says it’s a funny question to ask, but Boychuk really wants them to answer. Charlie just says that what he has been through in life would be enough to traumatize people, but here he stands, fishing with his old pals. Tom agrees and he says that although they are marginals, he really enjoyed it here with them. Boychuk says they both have great answers and he feels that way too. He asks them if they ever whished to go back to their normal lives and both his friends that they’ve long forgotten what it was like, but they’ve been happy because they’re free and they like how freedom tastes. Boychuk asks them to go back to shore, he’s not really feeling well and Charlie and Tom start to turn their small boat around.
They reach the shore and they help Boychuk to get up. His nasty hip injury is really starting to slow him down, but he insists he’s alright. They help him back to his cabin and lay him on his bed. Charlie talks to him while Tom takes an old rag and drenches in water from his waterskin. They apply it on his forehead and leave him be. He assures them he’s going to be alright. As they head out, Charlie has doubts that Boychuk will ever recover and Tom tells him not to worry, he’s Boychuk, he’s indestructible. They sit around their campfire and hear a distant motor sound. Bruno (Andy Serkis) and Steve (Josh Hamilton) turn their ATV engine off and they ask them where’s Boychuk. They say he’s resting inside, he’ll be fun. They note that it’s weird to see just two of them and Charlie agrees that it’s weird when Boychuk isn’t there. Bruno asks them to work the field this afternoon, they’ve neglected it lately and they need to product soon. Steve will make a trip in town tomorrow and he needs to bring some product with him. Tom, his voice shaking, agrees that they’ve been negligent recently but they promise to work the field for the rest of the afternoon. Charlie says they’re getting old and it’s not getting easier for them to work, but Bruno says a deal is a deal and they should respect it. Steve says they should stop bothering them and just go back and they leave the two old men alone.
We see a montage of Charles and Tom working on Steve and Bruno’s opium field. They progress slowly. We also see stills of Boychuk alone in his cabin. As they finish their job on the field, Boychuk draws his last breath. The one they thought was invincible died. Charlie and Tom come back and check on their old friend and they are devastated to find out that their best friend and partner in crime died alone, while they were doing someone else’s dirty work.
When Steve and Bruno come back, they look for them all over the camp and they finally enter Boychuk’s cabin. They notice that the old men die and they try to comfort the others to no avail. Steve hates to be the one to bring it up, but he would like to have his opium now. Charlie gives the bad to him and he says that Boychuk wouldn’t have died alone if not for this. Bruno heard it and he says that if they had done their job the last few days, they wouldn’t have been in the field today. Tom breaks the argument up, saying he doesn’t need more negativity in his life, he has endured enough. Bruno and Steve leave with the drug and leave the two men alone with their friend’s corpse. Charlie and Tom swear to give Boychuk a proper send-off with their modest means.
Steve stuffs a wad of cash in his glove compartment and checks his hair in the rear-view mirror before leaving his car. He enters the mental health hospital and he’s guided to his aunt Gertrude’s (Charlotte Rampling) room. She’s facing the other way and Steve asks Gertrude if she’s ready to go to her brother’s funeral and she tells him she’s not going there. Steve asks to stop being stubborn just for once, but when she turns around and he sees the tears running down her cheeks, he understands she’s not kidding. Gertrude says she will not honor the life of a man who molested her repeatedly when she was a child. Steve is shocked and Gertrude continues her rant and she says she’s been wrongly internalized her whole life because of it. They thought she was crazy and delusional, so they sent her here. Not only did he traumatized her, but he also made sure that she never lived a normal life. Gertrude grabs Steve by the shoulders and she begs him to get her out of here. Now is the perfect opportunity.
We cut back to Steve pushing Gertrude’s in a wheelchair down a corridor. The employees wish they a wonderful day and remind them they are sorry for their loss. Steve puts on Gertrude’s seatbelt on and he turns the engine on. He drives out of town in a remote location and he drives deep into the woods. Gertrude is fascinated by the world around. She’s never been this far away from the institution. He drives all the way to Charlie and Tom’s camp and he stops there. He tells her that she can live here with them. No one will ever come looking for her here and she’ll be safe. She can even make some friends along the way. He says it’s not too late for her to live her life. She thanks him for the opportunity and kisses him on the cheek. They get out of the car and meet with Charlie and Tom who are standing by the lake. Charlie is playing the guitar and signing a song as they watch the horizon. Steve asks them what they’re doing and Tom points at something on the lake and he says they built a raft and put Boychuk’s body on it. They pushed it into the lake and let it drift away. Boychuk is free, liberated, just like he wanted.
Steve introduces his aunt to them. She says her name is Mary-Snow and Steve is surprised to hear that. He says her name is Gertrude and she’ll stay with them for a while, until he finds something else for her. Charlie notes that it will be weird to have a woman around and Tom says he hasn’t seen a woman in probably 30 years, or even more. Gertrude apologizes that she’s not a young woman for them to enjoy, but Tom says she’s alright and once they’ll get to know each other better, they will form a bond so close that she will not want to leave, because this place is paradise, at least their paradise. Steve says it’s only temporary and he better find her alive when she comes back. Charlie asks Steve how the sell went and he shows them the money. Steve lets them know he appreciates what they do and he leaves them with Gertrude.
It is nighttime now and all three of them sit around the campfire. Charlie wants to know Gertrude a little better. She starts by warning them that her name isn’t Gertrude anymore, she’d like to be called Mary-Snow, or Mary for short. She says Gertrude is her past self and when she arrived here, it was synonymous with a fresh start and she wants to leave her traumatic past behind, leave Gertrude behind. Charlie and Tom say that it’s a noble reason and they’ve been through enough traumatic events themselves to get what she’s saying. Mary tells them about her traumatic past and she stops talking. She says it’s time for her to listen to their past and she wants to know why two more than capable can men live by themselves in the middle of the woods.
Charlie was a well respected country music singer, but he let the fame get to his head too quickly. His career was going so well and he could have had everything if he stayed on the right track. But the higher you climb, the harder the fall. He fell into the addiction pit, everything, name it, pills, painkillers, cocaine, he tried them all. The worse of all was alcohol. He was never able to quit and one night, he decided it was enough. He met with Bruno and he learned about this place and Boychuk. He came here to beat his demons and he never left. He never wanted to.
Tom shares his story with Mary. He was a successful businessman and everything was going well for him. But then, his love of cigarettes and cigars got the better of him. He was diagnosed with cancer and since his revenue was dependant on his well being so it was a tough time financially for him. He was miserable and it affected his mood. It was hard for him to go back to simple times after being so successful. He was alone and desperate and he stumbled upon Steve and Bruno who showed him Boychuk and Charlie’s little heaven and he figured out that it was better than the shithole he was living in and once he lived with them for a quite a while, he never wanted to leave.
Mary figures out that they aren’t much different after all. They all lived the majority of their lives locked away by society, some by choice and some by the force of nature. She says she’s tired and they show her Boychuk’s cabin. She says it feels weird to sleep on another person’s deathbed, but she’ll get used to it. At least, she’s free now, she can do whatever she wants.
The following morning, Charlie is out with his guitar and his singing as he looks at the sunset. Tom is awakened by his voice and Mary comes out too. Charlie says this is what it’s all about. Every morning, he comes out and he looks at the sunset and he’s happy with the decision he made to stay there for the rest of his life. Mary notes that she’s hungry and Tom says that she’ll be blown away by his cooking skill. She jokes that it’s not hard to taste better than mental asylum food and they all laugh as they prepare breakfast with the means they have.
A couple of days have gone by and Bruno and Steve are standing behind the counter at their hotel. The two friends own a hotel in the middle of nowhere that was gifted to them by a Lebanese immigrant who struggled with alcohol. They never have any customer and they use it as a front for the opium business. It also serves as a gateway between the Charlie and Tom’s hideout and the rest of the society. They are surprised to see a woman enter the hotel. Bruno welcomes her to their luxury hotel and Nancy (Isabelle Huppert) says this hotel is far from luxurious. Steve asks her why is she coming here, in the middle of nowhere, outside the city. Nancy says she’s a journalist here to cover the fiftieth anniversary of the deadly forest fire that struck the region and she wants to do an article on it. Steve agrees to let her stay in the hotel and he even offers her to show her around with the ATV. They give her a key to her room and while she leaves, Bruno asks Steve what is he doing and Steve says she can’t do anything to hurt them.
When Steve goes over to Nancy’s room to show her around, he notices that she’s already gone. We cut to Nancy walking in the forest. She stops for a while and she hears Charlie singing. She follows the voice until she reaches their camp. She sneaks up on him and he stops playing when he sees her. She asks him why an old man like him sings alone in the middle of nowhere and he asks her what an elegant woman like her is doing out here. She tells him her plan for the article about the forest fire. She’s specifically looking for a man named Boychuk. He’s sorry to break the news, but Boychuk died. She says it’s definitely a bummer, but all hope is not lost. She asks if she can stick around a bit and take pictures of the forest. Charlie figures out that she’ll be gone quicker if he helps her and he offers to show her Boychuk’s cabin, an offer she gladly accepts.
Charlie enters Boychuk’s cabin and he interrupts Mary and Tom who where talking in his room. Charlie introduces them to Nancy and they welcome her to their home. Nancy looks around Boychuk’s cabin, but she doesn’t find anything remotely interesting, as Boychuk didn’t have much belongings. They all sit down around the table and Charlie, who doesn’t really like Nancy being around, asks her why is she interested in Boychuk. She asks them if they ever heard about Boychuk’s story and the legend around him in the outside world. They say Boychuk never spoke about his past life and they respected that. He became really uncomfortable when they talked about it and when they did, he would walk away from them and not speak for days. Nancy says she’s here to write an article to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the great forest fire and Mary says she heard about that. Charlie still doesn’t understand what Boychuk does in the story and Nancy starts to explain what their old friend means to her story.
Fifty years ago, Boychuk had a family, a wife and three children. We see black and whie footage as Nancy goes along with her story. They were living in the forest, just like they’re doing now. Boychuk was a park ranger and he was in love with nature. Until, one day, there was a fire in the forest. The conditions were optimal for a forest fire and it spread pretty quickly. Boychuk wasn’t home at that time and his family died in the forest fire. When he came back, he found them dead in the remaining ashes of his former home. The firefighters saw him, his face all dark. They tried to talk to him, but he ran away in the ashes and in the fire, never to be seen again. People have been telling story about him for years and everyone always thought he was alive. When they discovered the body a couple of days ago, interest in Boychuk’s life was reignited. She did satellite research and discovered their camp. Her attention turns to a cabin, not far away, but carefully hidden in the trees and bushes. She asks Charlie what it is and Tom says it’s Boychuk’s secret cabin. He would often go in there when he didn’t feel good and they were never allowed in. They respected his privacy and never entered in the cabin. Nancy suggests they could go in there now that Boychuk is gone, but Charlie refuses. Tom and Mary-Snow, however, are on board with Nancy’s plan.
They head over to Boychuk’s secret cabin against Charlie’s wishes. He doesn’t go with them and he prefers to go fish instead. As he leaves the shore, they enter the small building lighted by a ray of sunlight coming from a window. Inside, is an artist studio, with paintings and a table with books and writing material. Nancy looks around and stares at the paintings while Tom and Mary are more interested in the books. Nancy quickly begins to realise that Boychuk came here to get his emotions and his dark thoughts out of his system. She grabs her camera and takes numerous pictures of Boychuk’s work. Mary-Snow keeps a book and Tom, not much of a reader, tells her that she could read it to him. Charlie is in the middle of the lake, but he isn’t fishing. He’s talking to his friend Boychuk, knowing full well that he won’t answer. He asks him if he’s better off where he is now, now that he knows what he’s been through. Charlie recalls the good moments they had together and how much he valued his privacy. He says that he’ll join him soon, he can feel it inside him, he doesn’t have much longer. To answer Boychuk’s question from the last time he went fishing, he has no regrets in life. He lived it to the fullest while he was still in the society, but his best moments were with him, here, in the middle of the woods. He doesn’t regret anything and if he had to start all over, he would have come here sooner. He hopes that he was able to brighten his life a little bit and he takes out his guitar to sing him a song, before going back to the shore.
Mary-Snow is sitting around the campfire, reading Boychuk’s book to Tom. The chapter is called “It Was Raining Birds” and it retells the darkest moment of his life and it greatly details the forest fire. Nancy is close, listening to every word that come out of Mary’s mouth. She notes how good of a writer Boychuk was. She associates the paintings from her photographs to moments from the book and she names them accordingly. She’s astonished by Boychuk’s talent. Mary-Snow is tired, she’ll go to sleep now and Tom follows her. Charlie was sitting in silence and he talks with Nancy about his old friend. He acknowledges that Boychuk was a peculiar individual and he perceived a certain melancholy and sadness to the way he talked and acted. Nancy asks him how his relationship with Boychuk was, personally. Charlie says that Boychuk was his confident, his best friend, but Boychuk had some issues that he didn’t want to talk about, but it is only know that he realises that he preferred to express himself through art. Nancy asks them why do they want to live outside the society, why do they choose to live their life like that. Charlie expresses absolutely no remorse and he says that society failed him and they certainly failed Boychuk. He knew the forest fire was caused by human and their predatory behavior regarding the environment and he felt like the society in general was the cause of his chagrin. Nancy asks him how does he know that if Boychuk never talked about it and he says that he went and borrowed a book from his cabin earlier today. He wanted to know the real Boychuk and now he does, but deep down he always knew who he was, all four of them who lived here have something in common. Society did them wrong and they wanted to escape this harsh reality. His celebrity status put immense pressure on him and he cracked. Our obsession with money got the better of Tom, who couldn’t go back on his feet financially after fighting for his life. The system gave up on him and he gave up on it shortly after. Mary, or Gertrude was internalized after she claimed her brother raped her when she was young and she wasn’t allowed to make such claim at that time, so they shut her up for good. Nancy say that it’s interesting and wishes him a good night sleep. He gives her the directions to go back to the hotel and she thanks him. Charlie grabs his guitar and signs a song in honor of his friend.
Tom is inside his cabin with Gertrude. He talks about his life and how lonely he always felt. He says that he gave up on love a long time ago and Gertrude says that they forced her to give up on love many years ago too. Tom says it’s never too late for them and he doesn’t want to die with regrets. He leans forward and kisses Mary. She says she never thought it would happen to her, but she likes it and kisses him back. They turn off the light and wish themselves a good night.
The following morning, Charlie is already out when Tom comes out of his cabin. They talk about what happened yesterday and they both tell each other that they won’t die with any regrets. Mary comes back and she asks Tom if he can teach her out to swim. She always wanted to, but they never allowed her. Tom and her jump in the lake and they laugh and share a moment. Charlie is surprised by Nancy again. She says she came back to write, she feels inspired by this little heaven of misunderstood misfits. Her voiceover takes us to flashbacks of Boychuk’s past and the present, as we gradually zoom out to show the nature surrounding them.
“It all started when it was raining birds. A man lost everything, and he blamed us for it. His tormented soul reclused itself into the woods to try to forget but to keep them alive at the same time. He was soon joined by two other misfits who looked at society at decided that it wasn’t for them and to be honest I don’t blame them. They separated themselves from society, some by choice, some not by choice, but they found each other. They lived and will die with no regrets completely disconnected. In my short stay with them, I saw humans in their purest form and with an undeniable bond. I saw pure friendships and a love story that many would say is impossible. Society is now looking at itself in the mirror, but these four individuals did it before us and they were right to do it.”
A couple of days later, Nancy published Boychuk’s book titled “It Was Raining Birds” accompanied by pictures of his art. All the money earned is given to a forest preservation charity. Tom and Mary are happy together, living a passionate love story in their last years, better now than never. Charlie is happy to have finally known his dear friend for what he really was.
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