To celebrate Max’s first year, I’ve created this video – a mini-epic that touches on most of the highlights of the last 12 months over a breezy 12 minutes or so. I managed to squeeze in a LOT – and that means that, if you encountered Max any time in the last year, watch closely as you’re probably in it!

Click here to watch the video! And be sure to click the full-screen icon at lower right to get the maximum effect.

PS Thanks to Mark Cohene Photography for the concluding image of Max, Christy and me.

Exciting news – I’m  in a play, The Trouble With Richard! My first non-musical is a very funny romantic comedy. And although I’m the lead, I’m very much in the eye of a comedic storm, surrounded by a bunch of outsize characters who keep the hilarity rolling along. Here’s the synopsis:

For a quiet guy, Richard’s life is getting complicated. He wants to propose to the girl he loves but he has to get his best buddy Jack off the couch first. As he struggles to get everything just right, Willie, the Scottish superintendent, wrestles with the plumbing, and his infatuated neighbour Andrew constantly hounds him. Will Richard be able to get the mood just right and win the girl of his dreams? 

The Trouble With Richard features Greg Bosworth (Jack), Angela Martin (Gwyneth), Barry Walker (Willie), Tracy Labrosse (Veronica) and Paul Tourneur (Andrew).

This is really a great show – full of funny characters, great one-liners, and hilarious situations, as well as some truly touching moments. And our director, Clive Sanders, is helping make every little detail as good as it can be. It’s really going to be fun. I hope you can come and see it!

Preview: Feb. 9. Show runs Feb. 10-11, 15-18 and 22-25.

Location: Hendry Hall, 815 East 11th St., North Vancouver. View Map.

For tickets, call (604) 983-2633 or order online!

For maybe two months now, “The Artist” has been on my  must-see list. As someone who already loves silent movies – and has even successfully turned on some non-fans to the delights of Keaton and Chaplin – the mere idea of a brand-new, black-and-white silent film was almost too wonderful to believe.

I even clipped out and saved reviews – unread – to savour after I’d seen it, so as not to reveal even the smallest plot detail beforehand and keep my first viewing truly fresh.

However, my new, less-spontaneous life, where a babysitter is a necessity for any grown-up moviegoing, delayed my viewing of the film until just last weekend. Now I have some thoughts.

Like most things that get a huge buildup of anticipation, I found “The Artist” to be not without its flaws, but overall I enjoyed it very much.

It starts with a bang, as we enjoy a high-energy adventure film along with the 1925 opening-night audience assembled at a grand movie palace. We also get one of several knowing nods to the whole exercise, as our film-within-a-film’s hero, the silent star George Valentin, bound and about to be tortured for information, exclaims (in title cards of course), “I won’t talk! I won’t say a word!”

The rest of the opening packs in plenty of laughs and entertainment, with an engaging star who keeps wringing a little more time in front of his adoring audience, a jealous co-star, a gruff studio chief - even a dog who charms us with his perfectly-timed routines.

From there, we are plunged into the meticulously recreated world of 1920′s moviemaking. From the camera angles to the newsboys, it really feels like the filmmakers went back in time.

There are also some wonderful moments of visual storytelling – like the infatuated starlet Peppy Miller inserting her arm into Valentin’s unattended jacket, bringing it “to life” so it embraces her. Or a later scene of Valentin after his fortunes have fallen, gazing at his reflection in a shop window in which he seems to be dressed in the tuxedo on display.

But at some point I started to have problems. The characters were archetypes, not real living breathing characters I could truly care about. A romance is suggested as developing between the silent star and his protege, but we never really see it develop in any way. It’s over before it really begins.

He’s also married to a long-suffering wife, but their relationship is even less fleshed out – they mostly just glare at each other.

The lack of emotional connection means that as Valentin slides toward bankruptcy and oblivion, we aren’t really invested in his fate. I watched more with intrigued interest at scenes that were clearly intended to pull at my emotions.

Silent films were, of course, not truly silent – there was always music. And the music in “The Artist” is very well done. It’s a lovely score, and is complemented by some selections of period music.

At one point, though, the love theme from “Vertigo” – possibly my favourite film of all time – suddenly began to play under a later, suspenseful scene. I was startled but rather pleased – I always welcome the appearance of Bernard Herrmann’s haunting music. But it also bothered me, as the emotional beats in that piece didn’t really match what was happening on screen.

Ultimately, I found myself wondering if I would be giving this film high marks simply as a film - in other words, if this was a genuine old silent film, would I find it engaging and involving enough to consider a good film in its own right? Sadly, I would have to say no.

Some of what I’d read about “The Artist” seemed to imply that it went into “meta” territory, commenting on the nature of why we go to movies or the nature of silent vs. sound films. Nothing I saw really bore this out. There is one unique dream sequence which makes unexpected and clever use of realistic sound effects, but it’s the only time we see anything unexpected that really plays with the medium.

Unfortunately, in the end, “The Artist” perpetuates the idea that silent films could only tell simplistic, clichéd stories, which was hardly the case – silents could be as rich in characterization and rife with subplots as any sound film.

There is much to enjoy in “The Artist”, but in the end it is more a loving pastiche than a truly successful film in itself.