Obelisks Will Mark the Place You Fell

Viva Sarah Polley! The edgy 27-year old Canadian prodigy with literary predilections is set to direct Away from Her, a film based on Alice Munro's story "The Bear Came Over the Mountain," from Munro's 2001 collection Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage.

Stylistically, Polley could be Uma Thurman's cousin, though with a voice a little like Winona Ryder's. She is superb in The Sweet Hereafter (1997, based on Russell Banks' 1991 novel of the same name), Guinevere (1999), and My Life Without Me (2003, based on Nanci Kincaid's "Pretending the Bed is a Raft," the title story in a 1997 collection). She appears in Beowulf & Grendel, which I have yet to see (it was released in Canada last year).

Polley is terrific! As a child star, she emerged from television work and a Disney contract to become immersed in independent film and political activism. She displeased Disney when -- at age twelve -- she refused to remove a peace sign during a sponsored event in 1991 (the first Gulf War period). Four years later, she was roughed up during a protest against Ontario Conservatives and had teeth knocked out in the scuffle. She is a socialist, active member of the Canadian New Democratic Party. Zowie!

Which leads me to ask, what ever happened to charismatic socialist leaders like Eugene Debs in the United States? Can the Land of the Free, Home of the Brave really only produce boring old Republicans and Democrats year after year? And we want to export this?

Sadly, in truth, even Canada has taken a more conservative tilt, at least temporarily. Though there are Canadian troops deployed in Afghanistan, the government remains at odds with the Bush Administration over the Iraq War. Still, would draft evaders from the USA find a refuge in Canada if it came to it, as during Vietnam? Perhaps Sarah Polley would help in such a time of need . . . . Be not afraid! Meanwhile, if you want to see Polley in an entertaining fast-paced movie and haven't caught it yet, see Go (1999)!