Forty-something-year old Maurice has forsaken his hometown of Paris where he was successful actor and landed up in North Bay a remote small town in Northern Ontario where is regarded as something of an exotic enigma. His French accent wins him compliments but his insistence on still keeping to some of his big city habits like having anonymous sex and one-night-stands, doesn’t sit quite so well in this very small community. It is something he quickly discovers when he abruptly asks his latest pick-up to leave in the morning, and then upsets him further when he tells him that he never ever does second dates.
Little does he know that when he starts his first day at work with a local Theater Company who mount productions for children, that he will discover that the stage manager there is none other than Michael the man he very coldly threw out of his bed a couple hours earlier. They agree to behave professionally with each other although it is obvious that despite his annoyance at being rejected by Maurice, Michael is nevertheless quite smitten with this rather cold fish of a man.
To supplement his rather meager pay from the theater, Maurice also advertises his service as a French teacher, and he is very quickly employed to tutor Alain a young and nervous teenager. Pupil and teacher quickly bond as Maurice can relate to all the problems that Alain is having coming to terms with his sexuality, whilst Maurice actually seems to spend so much effort denying his.
As this unfolds there is a series of flashbacks which help us understand why Maurice ran away from Paris in the first place which seem in part to explain why he is unable to go forward with his life now. Whilst he knows that there cannot be anything with him and Alain, it still doesn’t stop him pursuing it. Meanwhile Michael is waiting in the wings and is always there to help Maurice out of jams even though Maurice is studiously avoiding any sort of loving relationship with him.
What We Have is the feature writing/directing debut of Canadian based French actor Maxime Desmons who also took the lead role. It is not the most comfortable movie to watch as we witness Maurice dealing with his demons and as it touches on some troublesome topics that are not always that palatable. However what keeps us engaged in this low-budget LGBT drama is the convincing performances of the three male leads, particularly Desmons as Maurice and the young Russian/Canadian actor Alex Ozerov playing Alain who created a remarkable chemistry between them.
It is a very intriguing and thought provoking movie that reminds us that there are other good LGBT filmmakers in Canada besides Xavier Dolan.
