A Mountie is accused of killing his wife in a fatal fall from a luxury condo in 1981.A Mountie is accused of killing his wife in a fatal fall from a luxury condo in 1981.A Mountie is accused of killing his wife in a fatal fall from a luxury condo in 1981.
- Awards
- 1 win & 6 nominations
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Storyline
Did you know
- GoofsGlass-lined balconies weren't on any apartment buildings in the early 1980s - certainly not in Toronto.
- Quotes
April Trent: Did you really hit that woman in the face?
Patrick Kelly: No.
April Trent: No? Well someone said you did.
Patrick Kelly: That's because I did.
April Trent: You did?
Patrick Kelly: Well *I* didn't do it. It was me but it *wasn't* me.
- ConnectionsReferences Donahue (1967)
Featured review
He Promised the World & He Delivered A Lot of It
A big criticism I have of Canadian cinema is that our auteurs don't generally think big and seek to make films about the larger than life characters and difficult to believe stories of the Canadian experience. In fact a great deal of real life people, heroes & villains, and their lives would be excellent fodder for feature film and have been.
One of the most infamous Canadians ever was our version of a fed i.e. RCMP (In a modern context Canada's FBI, in a symbolic context Canada's Texas Rangers) i.e. a 'Mountie'. Foreigners think of Dudley Do-Right or Nelson Eddy, Sgt.Preston of the Yukon or Benton Fraser - the character Paul Gross played on the TV series 'Due South' when they think of a Mountie.
Paul Gross also played this very different kind of Mountie - a real-life cocky, smooth-talking, womanising, pretty-boy undercover narcotics cop by the name of Patrick Kelly who was only occasionally seen in the trademark dress uniform of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Kelly himself dressed in street clothes and acted like a sleazo to get drug dealers to sell to him and, in all probability, never did so on horseback.
This film details the questions raised about Kelly suggesting he committed arson for insurance money. At various times he was accused of drug-dealing, smuggling, money-laundering, defrauding business associates and cheating on his taxes. All whilst juggling affairs with multiple women including one who would claim to have witnessed him kill his wife throwing her from the balcony of their luxury lakeshore condo on Toronto's Palace Pier in 1981, a year after he quit the force.
Kelly was convicted of the murder years later. What makes the case and this film about it all so compelling for Canadians goes beyond the sensationalistic and at times salacious revelations about Kelly's personal life which the writing only superficially touches upon. The lingering question is whether he really did it.
Some doubt has hung over the verdict for 30 years now punctuated by the fact that the only supposed eyewitness recanted her testimony years later on a nationally-televised American talk show. The inconclusiveness of it all is touched upon by the script and alluded to by the title.
Preconceived notions persist in Canada when it comes to Mounties. The mainstream view is one which not only holds the RCMP in highest esteem for what it does to 'Maintain the Right' but for its proud history and symbolic significance in our culture. The vision of this stalwart defender of law and order riding across a rugged landscape remains compelling. In such a vision an innocent face like Patrick Kelly's is what is pictured wearing the 'Red Serge'.
There is also the reverse view. Many Aboriginal people view Mounties as an occupation force holding land stolen from them. Leftist intelligentsia here tend see it as a union-busting force. Numerous individual Canadians have specific personal grievances and a fair number of them used to be Mounties. A lot of people want to deflate the appealing myth.
Patrick Kelly was a master at cultivating the benefit of the doubt and Paul Gross's performance shows how Kelly did it in some very shocking scenes. It is a remarkable characterisation which suggests that Kelly was an icy creature masquerading as different things to different people. Gross and the rest of the cast convey the effect of the man's personalism.
The context of this character, his place in Canadian society and the events leading to his subsequent downfall make for fascinating viewing. The story raises a lot of questions. Gross as Kelly offers only a perfunctory, truncated summation of Kelly's side of it - a side most rational adults wouldn't think was worth hearing. Yet from a personal standpoint, deep down I want to believe Kelly is innocent.
Multiple names have been changed in this film and not all for dramatic license. It is clear some of this was done for legal reasons.
One of the most infamous Canadians ever was our version of a fed i.e. RCMP (In a modern context Canada's FBI, in a symbolic context Canada's Texas Rangers) i.e. a 'Mountie'. Foreigners think of Dudley Do-Right or Nelson Eddy, Sgt.Preston of the Yukon or Benton Fraser - the character Paul Gross played on the TV series 'Due South' when they think of a Mountie.
Paul Gross also played this very different kind of Mountie - a real-life cocky, smooth-talking, womanising, pretty-boy undercover narcotics cop by the name of Patrick Kelly who was only occasionally seen in the trademark dress uniform of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Kelly himself dressed in street clothes and acted like a sleazo to get drug dealers to sell to him and, in all probability, never did so on horseback.
This film details the questions raised about Kelly suggesting he committed arson for insurance money. At various times he was accused of drug-dealing, smuggling, money-laundering, defrauding business associates and cheating on his taxes. All whilst juggling affairs with multiple women including one who would claim to have witnessed him kill his wife throwing her from the balcony of their luxury lakeshore condo on Toronto's Palace Pier in 1981, a year after he quit the force.
Kelly was convicted of the murder years later. What makes the case and this film about it all so compelling for Canadians goes beyond the sensationalistic and at times salacious revelations about Kelly's personal life which the writing only superficially touches upon. The lingering question is whether he really did it.
Some doubt has hung over the verdict for 30 years now punctuated by the fact that the only supposed eyewitness recanted her testimony years later on a nationally-televised American talk show. The inconclusiveness of it all is touched upon by the script and alluded to by the title.
Preconceived notions persist in Canada when it comes to Mounties. The mainstream view is one which not only holds the RCMP in highest esteem for what it does to 'Maintain the Right' but for its proud history and symbolic significance in our culture. The vision of this stalwart defender of law and order riding across a rugged landscape remains compelling. In such a vision an innocent face like Patrick Kelly's is what is pictured wearing the 'Red Serge'.
There is also the reverse view. Many Aboriginal people view Mounties as an occupation force holding land stolen from them. Leftist intelligentsia here tend see it as a union-busting force. Numerous individual Canadians have specific personal grievances and a fair number of them used to be Mounties. A lot of people want to deflate the appealing myth.
Patrick Kelly was a master at cultivating the benefit of the doubt and Paul Gross's performance shows how Kelly did it in some very shocking scenes. It is a remarkable characterisation which suggests that Kelly was an icy creature masquerading as different things to different people. Gross and the rest of the cast convey the effect of the man's personalism.
The context of this character, his place in Canadian society and the events leading to his subsequent downfall make for fascinating viewing. The story raises a lot of questions. Gross as Kelly offers only a perfunctory, truncated summation of Kelly's side of it - a side most rational adults wouldn't think was worth hearing. Yet from a personal standpoint, deep down I want to believe Kelly is innocent.
Multiple names have been changed in this film and not all for dramatic license. It is clear some of this was done for legal reasons.
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- JasonDanielBaker
- Mar 26, 2014
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