l_rawjalaurence Set in a lonely farm in Quebec, TOM A LA FERME concerns the inner life of the eponymous central character (Xavier Dolan) mourning the death of his lover. He goes to his lover's family's isolated farm for the funeral, and there encounters the mother (Lise Roy) and her other son (Pierre-Yves Cardinal), neither of whom were aware of the dead lover's sexuality.The film concentrates on the gradual discovery by the family of their dead son's secret, and how it affects them. Francis is both horrified yet strangely affected; as the action unfolds, he develops an unnatural affection for Tom that is both sadistic and sexual. The mother seems to be unaware of what's happening around her, but perhaps she is just deliberately blinding herself to the truth as a means of self-protection. Tom finds himself imprisoned at the farm; even when his close acquaintance Sarah (Evelyne Brochu) comes to visit, he cannot contrive an effective escape.TOM A LA FERME concentrates on the ways in which people conceal their private inclinations, even from their nearest and dearest, and the damage that actually causes them. This is especially true of Francis, who emerges from the film as a seriously disturbed character, masking his sexual inadequacies beneath a veil of strength. Yet the process of self-discovery for all the characters is an enabling one - so much so that when Tom finally escapes from the farm, he does not appear very happy to have done so. The film ends with a shot of him re-entering the city of Montreal, the lighted skyscrapers flashing by outside his car windows, with his face set in an expressionless gaze as he drives. It seems that 'freedom' for him is nothing more than a form of imprisonment; by extension, therefore, his imprisonment at the farm was an opportunity to discover some form of freedom.Filmed on a series of bleak winter days in stark, washed-out colors, TOM A LA FERME is a searing psychological examination of sexualities and how they are often willfully concealed.

aaskillz69 "It's for you Sarah. It's all yours now, yes? Why not take the box? Why not do what you should do? Why not this sad? Why not run to his grave? Why not bring me flowers? Why didn't Tom speak at the church? Why i let my son visit me? Because he said he would call and write! What kind of accident was it? With whom was he? How was it when, where, how! Nobody dies at 25! Nobody, Nobody, Nobody!!!-AgatheWell last year when this premiered at Venice i was pretty interested in seeing what kind of buzz it would come out with, and the buzz was overall great, the Toronto buzz was also good and since then the movie as been on my watchlist. Before this one i had only seen two movies from Dolan those being "Laurence Anyways and "I Killed my Mother", i liked "Laurence" quite a bit but i was disappointed by "Mother" and non of those movies were really my cup of tea although something like Laurence Anyways was undeniably good. So i went in to Tom at the Farm reluctant but hopeful that it would be a worthy experience.Tom at the Farm is Directed by Xavier Dolan and it stars Xavier Dolan, Pierre-Yves Cardinal, Lise Roy, Evelyne Brochu, Manuel Tadros and Jacques Lavallée. "The story of Tom, who is in the grip of grief and depression following the death of his lover. When he meets the family of the deceased, it is revealed the mother was not aware of her son's sexual orientation, or his relationship with Tom either, for that matter."It's been more than half a year and still only a few fortunate people have been able to see this movie, that hasn't even been released yet at the U.S. Tom at the Farm was well received, mostly positive reviews but i still get the feeling that this was Dolan's less applauded work and i got to say that i don't really understand why because Tom at the Farm might be my favorite of his. OK well it might not be the movie i enjoyed the most, maybe i enjoyed Laurence Anyways a bit more but i would probably say that this one is the one that audiences will find easier to watch . I found "I Killed my Mother" to be completely uninteresting and i was bored out of my mind and "Laurence Anyways" was a bit to long and Tom at the Farm does not have any of those problems. One of the problems i had with the previous two movies was to follow the narrative, it was a bit to abstract(probably not the right word) and it was hard to keep an interest in what was going on. But this doesn't happen here, i was actually surprised by how engaged and interested i was actually in the movie's plot.The movie follows the title role, Tom, and the movie begins with him crying clearly heartbroken and we soon get to see that someone who was close to him died. He drives into the country, into a farm where he breaks in to a house. We soon find out that there a lady and his son live there and that there is a family connection between Tom's lover and this family. The name of the lady was Agather and her son Francis and the person that died was Agathe's son(Guilahume) and Francis brother.No one was expecting Tom although he was his boyfriend, worst than that no one seems to know that Guilaume was gay. The only one that knew this was Francis his brother and he is a redneck motherf*cker and he is making sure that his mom is not going to know the truth and he says that a Sarah was dating him although she doesn't even go to the funeral.Tom seems to be in a difficult situation, he can't say the truth to Agathe but well something worst happens. Francis starts playing games with Tom, he wont let him get out of the farm, he will beat him and then treat him well. There is also some palpable sexual tension between the two. It's kind of weird but between the beating, and the dancing and the cow's birth Tom actually gets familiar with the farm and kind of fells in love with Francis.There is a lot going on at the same time. At times Tom tries desperately to get out of the farm and then later one saying that he loves the farm that there everything is really. We never really get a sense of Tom and Francis mental state they are both clearly disturbed, Tom seems to love and hate Francis at the same time and the same thing with Francis that seems to despise Tom and to heterosexual being proud of being on and then being sexually attracted to Tom. These physiological nuances make Tom at the Farm be a edge of the seat physiological thriller and a movie that is no doubt worth seeing.Technically the movie is also pretty great, the does look great and all the camera work and score really intensify the physiological instability of these characters. The acting is also great, Xavier Dolan not only proves to have some talent behind the cameras but also in front of the cameras, all the rest of the supporting cast is goo by the way. Overall i enjoyed Tom at the Farm much more than i was actually expecting to, good movie no doubt on that but i'm still reluctant in saying that i'm excited about this new comer Xavier DolanRating:B-

thomasshahbaz This film succeeds in pulling off what "Stranger By The Lake" totally failed to do. The darkness draws you in and intrigues us, and the characters are brilliantly acted and engaging.Some of the editing is slightly strange, or perhaps the narrative would be a better way to describe it, i.e. there are a couple of transitions between scenes where I found I was having to piece things together arbitrarily, in my opinion, meaning I had to concentrate hard. However I'd much rather this than everything being spelled out in children's building blocks as is the way with many American films.This is one of the few "gay" films I've seen that had hardly anything superficial and stereotypical about it, and wasn't depressing to watch as a gay man.Hats off to the guy who played the crazy brother: dark and scary, but the homoerotic tones and suppressed desires sound through his silence, creating a fascinating villain, again, something which the aforementioned other French-language gay thriller completely failed to do, managing only to be faintly embarrassing and ridiculous.

reefrunner19 A very subjective review, and I hate having to put down a film (as an aspiring film director myself), but I would just want to present my personal view of the film, hopefully without ruining it for any of Dolan's fans or anyone who worked on the film. WARNING: This review may be harsh.I saw it at the BFI London Film Festival back in October of 2013. The second film I saw at the festival (following Alfonso Cuaron's "Gravity"). Having heard of Xavier Dolan's apparently impressive skills vastly out-spanning his young years, I entered the theatre with much anticipation, and excitement given my immense love for psychological thrillers. Unfortunately, I could not be more disappointed with a film than I was with "Tom At The Farm".FAR too long for the slow pace of the story, I feel that the narrative does not amount to anything. The audience is made to wait an hour and forty-five minutes, and is aching for Tom to just leave the farm, which when he finally does, everything in the story is left completely unresolved. A waste of time in my opinion. An agonising wait with little to no character development or resolution to conflicts to keep the audience interested. "Tom At The Farm" utterly failed to keep me engaged, and just as much as I was dying for Tom to just leave the farm, I was dying to leave the theatre.