Dir: Jeremy Podeswa. Canada. 108 mins
Somewhere in the midst of Fugitive Pieces, a story informed by memories of the Holocaust, a character explains that the amazing aspect of wood is not that it burns, but that it floats. The life lesson is that in all things there is a positive and negative component. And the same can be said of this adaptation of the novel by Anne Michaels.

At times it is disjointed and dramatically muted and then will suddenly turn with deliberation and tap into a rich emotional vein that's impossible to resist.

Unquestionably a difficult film to market on other than the vaguely defined quality-picture basis, it nonetheless should work well as an upscale niche entry.

Its fortunes are precarious; riding on reviews that will undoubtedly be mixed, festival berths and the always impossible 'for your consideration' prospects.

This year's curtain raiser in Toronto spans four decades in the life of a man whose earliest memories are as a child in Poland squinting through cracks in a recessed wall enclosure as his parents are murdered and his sister taken away by Nazi soldiers.

The partially-seen images are the first of the fragments he spends the rest of his life filling in and that will ultimately provide an ironic conclusion that doesn't quite mesh with what has preceded.

Director Jeremy Podeswa, who also adapted the novel, strives for the quality of a tone poem to give cohesion to Jakob's (Stephen Dillane) odyssey from Poland to Greece to Canada with emphasis on the war year's and the not so swinging 1960s in Toronto.

It requires a sort of sleight-of-hand to create the non-linear, non-chronological structure that nonetheless must embrace a satisfying emotional progression.

The creative dilemma is that by its very nature only so much of the puzzle can initially be revealed and a degree of frustration builds because intentions are blurred and the story seems unfocused.

The insularity of the young boy while totally understandable is another aspect that retards the narrative flow. One feels more like an eavesdropper than a participant during the first third of the film before the pieces begin to cohere.

Jakob was lucky, having been found in the woods by a Greek archaeologist (Rade Sherbedgia) on a dig in Poland. He manages to spirit him away to his remote but nonetheless Nazi-occupied Aegean isle.

Athos becomes more than a surrogate father, he is the sole of the story and Sherbedgia gives the sort of full blooded performance that's apt to be likened to Zorba sans the dancing. His appointment to a Canadian university again propels the story forward.

The other persuasive aspect of Fugitive Pieces is its sheer craft. Podeswa has fashioned an elegant timepiece with the dark transition to a musty Toronto apartment nicely contrasted with the picture postcard look of Greek locales.

It has a seductive rhythm and score that keeps one engaged even if the anecdotes appear random. There is a logic but one has to stick it out to see that the jigsaw really does come together.

Production Company

Serendipity Point/Cinegram

Dist/sales

Maximum Film (Toronto)

Producer

Robert Lantos

Screenplay

Jeremy Podeswa, based upon the novel by Anne Michaels

Main Cast

Stephen Dillane

Rade Sherbedgia

Rosamund Pike

Ayelet Zurer