Best movie of this year hands down!

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Older but totally buff Bruce Greenwood (as Tom Avery) has been married three times and considers himself unlucky in love. He discusses romance with listeners in his job as a late-night radio talk show host. Often seated below his billboard image on the subway, Mr. Greenwood attracts some weird one-night stands, especially women with foot fetishes. Assured by one of his adopted mothers there is "a lid for every pot," Greenwood finds his lid in beautiful Emilia Fox (as Fay). She works on mermaid exhibits for a museum. When problems surface in Ms. Fox' parents' marriage, we are left to wonder if the institution will survive. Enjoyed Greenwood and Fox as actors, but never cared whether or not their characters were able to maneuver modern marriage intrusions. The plight of parents Edward Fox (as Richard) and Martha Henry (as Audrey) was more interesting.***** The Republic of Love (9/11/03) Deepa Mehta ~ Bruce Greenwood, Emilia Fox, Edward Fox, Martha Henry

If the characters had been able to get over themselves, the viewer would have been able to breathe easier. The long looks – forget your lines? The oh-so-serious weighing of feelings, especially, in Fay – grow up, kid. I think it's called analysis paralysis. Her brother had her number. Where does all that probative introspection get her? It's good she rallied around her mother when needed, but was it really necessary to spin into withdrawal? Lash out at Tom when he calls? She's a baby. Someone really should have taken Tom's temperature. I think he was sick or was he just sleep walking? Just kind of drifts into things, including marriage. Use the brain. Get a pulse. Now, put the two together. The kinky Indian music was too strange. Maybe the mermaid idea was considered an artsy touch as well. These are supposed to be fairly adult people who hold down real jobs. Their courtship and relating revolve mainly around the initial newness of meeting and cohabiting. Pretty flimsy deal they got going here. Not surprising that it doesn't weather the first ill wind that blows its way. I guess their parents failed them along the way, but what else is new? You are supposed to acquire some life skills beyond that on your own. You're grown up now (40ish, in his case), so why can't you handle anything? Where's the strength for someone else? Consumed on little me, actually. Good luck on the marriage ("I'm so happy!"). Unfortunately, it takes a lot more than that. Oh, please finally get with it, or just go back home and settle into sucking your thumb in earnest.This is a downer about two losers likely to remain that way.

More mermaids, please. Fay(Emilia Fox) is supposed to like mermaids, but the filmmaker shows disinterest in the mythical creatures of the deep by its very negation from the museum curator's interior life. The mermaid, who is often alone, describes Fay's emotional life. Mermaids are sirens; solitary creatures who lure lonely sailors with their beauty and oceanic love songs. It's a visual motif that needs to be in the film. A filmmaker with an understanding of Irish folklore would exploit Fay's passion to the hilt. When her love affair with Tom Avery(Bruce Greenwood) goes awry, that's when "The Republic of Love" needs the half-woman, half-fish inside Faye to come out of its watery environs. She is a romantic. A mermaid. Late in the film, she watches a documentary about eels, which would've made a stronger impression on the viewer had the mermaid angle been better exploited. The realities of the sea(eels exist; mermaids don't) mirrors the reality of her parents' marriage, and the reality of her godfather's mortality(mermaids are immortal; humans are not). But the filmmaker never allows Fay to be a mermaid. The filmmaker seems to keep the Irish nature of "The Republic of Love" largely in the closet. Instead, for some inexplicable reason, mournful Indian music on the soundtrack describes Fay's grief, even though, earlier in "The Republic of Love", it's her former lover who rented the Bollywood musical. She had fallen asleep. Indian cinema disinterest her. But this filmmaker doesn't care and takes a page out of the Mira Nair handbook(she transformed "Vanity Fair" into something that lovers of the William Makepeace Thackery couldn't recognize), nevertheless, by grafting her indigenous culture onto a foreign one, which probably ill-serves the Carol Shields novel. The late Canadian writer shouldn't be punished for writing about white people. This filmmaker wants to integrate Shields' imagination.

I agree with the previous commentary that there is an excellent director at work in this film, and that the script can be rather thin at times. However, the chemistry between Bruce Greenwood and Emilia Fox save the movie. The ups and downs they face have some similar correlation to the problems we all face in real life, although there are times when one wonders about their strange situations. Still, both actors have created full, living and breathing characters for us to enjoy and, while at times we wonder why the story heads in a certain direction, we are still captivated by the relationship these two actors have created for the screen. In my youth I was never a fan of Canadian productions. Films like this keep changing my mind and deserve all the support we can give it.Get your lover, a bottle of your favourite wine and enjoy; it's worth it.