Review of Time to Leave

A gay man finds out he's dying of cancer. How many times have we been here before? Yet this movie decides to avoid most of the clichés and give it to us "straight." The dying man has little to recommend him. He is cruel, vindictive, self centered, aloof, and why should we care? Unwilling to share his death with anyone, he alienates his family, lover, and anyone who tries to touch him emotionally. Is he just projecting his anger at dying? Or has he always been this way? We get some clues, but they lead us nowhere. He has long alienated his sister, and we are left to wonder why. This movie's strength is that it offers no excuses or rationale for it's protagonist. Too many Directors would have thrown in clues for us to look for, like crumbs for Hansel and Gretel, but not this one. He is complex, contradictory, annoyingly so! He is sweet with his grandmother, but cruel to his sister and lover. The beauty of it is that the audience can create their own delusions about him. It's a Rorshach test! In the end he makes sure his seed will carry on, by giving it as a gift to a couple, strangers to him, whose male is sterile. Then he makes sure they sit through his bequeathing everything to the unborn child. At several points in the movie he has made it clear that he hates children. Is this the root of his self hatred? His own homophobia? Does he yearn deep down to be "normal" in a world in which he is not? See how much fun it is to imagine motives, and not have them crammed down ones throat? But in the end he dies alone, with only his grandmother privy to his secret, and in his final act he retains his cruelty, his desire to hurt those he has some unknown grudge against. His family is left to agitate about why.