Review: 'Universal Language' presents a surreal, absurdist story steeped in Canadian kindness
The title of Canadian director Matthew Rankin’s oddly touching “Universal Language” becomes apparent gradually, as the viewer realizes where and what is going on — and that the weirdness and whimsy are only starting.
We start at a school where the sign out front is in Farsi, the language of Iran. Then the subtitle tells us the school’s name: Robert H. Smith School. Then we see a teacher rush through the snow and in the front doors, then go to his classroom and berate his students — in French.
We soon figure out that we’re in an alternate-universe version of Winnipeg, Rankin’s home town, where the bilingual mix isn’t English and French, but French and Farsi. While the viewer untangles that, they must also keep track of the wide array of characters who bounce off each other through the interwoven narrative.
There’s the angry teacher, Iraj (Mani Soleymanlou), who berates his students, particularly young Omid (Sobhan Javadi), who lost his glasses and can’t see the blackboard. Two of his classmates, Nazgol (Saba Vahedyousefi) and Negin (Rojina Esmaeili), want to get him new glasses, and they think they can when they find a 500 Riel note (named for Louis Riel, the founder of Manitoba) frozen in the ice. While they look for a way to break the ice, they ask Massoud (Pirouz Nemati), who has many jobs around Winnipeg, to watch the space and not steal the money or the ice.
Each of these characters, at one point or another, encounters Matthew (played by Rankin), a morose fellow who has left his job in Montreal to return home to Winnipeg to care for his ailing grandmother. When he goes to his old house, he learns she’s no longer there — but the family that lives there now welcomes him anyway. He calls his mom’s phone number, and the man who answers agrees to meet him at a Tim Hortons, a coffee-and-donuts chain that is as much a symbol of Canada as the maple leaf, even when the cafe’s sign is in Farsi.
As Matthew makes his way through a Winnipeg that feels both familiar and foreign, in ways that have nothing to do with people speaking Farsi, the movie’s thesis comes into focus: That kindness is everywhere, if one only looks around or opens themselves up to experience it.
Some of this kindness can be ascribed as “Canadian nice,” that legendary national trait of politeness and easygoing charm that doesn’t get rattled by much — other than losing at hockey or hearing some blowhard talk about creating a 51st state. (But, really, who does that?)
Rankin, following up on his 2019 expressionist history tale “The Twentieth Century,” peppers this complex narrative with moments of surreal silliness, whether it’s a shop that only displays frozen turkeys or an ice skater who appears literally out of nowhere. He demonstrates in “Universal Language,” that we do indeed have more that unites us than separates us — no matter what language we’re speaking.
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‘Universal Language’
★★★1/2
Opens Friday, March 21, at the Broadway Centre Cinemas. Not rated, but probably PG-13 for thematic material. Running time: 89 minutes; in Farsi and French, with subtitles.