This film might be described as a psychological thriller, if there were any thrills in it. How best then to describe it? Confusing, disjointed, pointless?Set in the middle of the Canadian winter, it begins with a man driving a snow plough, hitting a man who is walking in the middle of the road, and killing him. At worst this would be causing death by dangerous driving, most probably a tragic accident, but for one caveat, well, two actually, or maybe three, depending how much of this rubbish you decide to watch.The first is that he is drinking alcohol. The second as we learn later is that he has been banned from driving after a bizarre incident involving a snow plough crash which has left him unable to work, perhaps not simply because he has lost his driving licence. The third is that he knows the man in question, who had actually been crashing at his place on account of his being up to his ears in debt, through gambling, and not having the courage to go home and face his wife.This man had also been caught stealing from our non-hero, and had fled into the night on that account. There is no doubt his death was an accident, but understandably the authorities might be more than a little skeptical. Which leaves us where? Well, it leaves him carrying out a series of acts pointless and bizarre in equal measure, not to mention incriminating, and no, that does not mean simply driving his car.

Although I thought this movie got a little tedious and that some of the plot elements didn't quite add up, I still found that it pulled me in right from the start and kept me intrigued throughout.It's basically a two person film with the fine actor Thomas Haden Church leading the way and starring as Bruce. He's been drinking heavily since his wife died a year before, while living in the Canadian wilderness. However, his livelihood as a snow plow driver has been shut down, as his license has been revoked for driving drunk and crashing into a restaurant.Marc Lebreche, as Paul, is the other major player here, and rather than write too many spoilers here I'll just say we learn a lot more about him as the film progresses. I can say that the movie opens with Paul running desperately through the snow covered streets of the town, while Bruce is shown driving his snow plow in a snowstorm with very poor visibility. Suddenly, we see the plow crashing straight on into Paul.Through flashbacks, we'll eventually learn how these two men got to the opening scenes, and it is quite a journey we're in store for. We'll also see what amounts to a wilderness survival story and a slow descent into madness, which, as mentioned can get a little tiresome, but still kept me quite engrossed.I thought this was quite a good effort for a directorial debut from Emanuel Hoss-Desmaris, who also co-wrote the script with first time screenwriter Marc Tulin.Overall, I felt this film had its' limitations, but I still found it to be an intriguing and engaging watch.

"You know, they say, that every guilty person is his own hangman. They also say that tomorrow will be a better day." Bruce (Church) is a snowplow operator in the cold desolate Quebec woods. He spends his nights alone with a bottle. One night when the two mixed he winds up accidentally killing someone. Rather then do what is right he decides to do what he can to cover it up. While he thinks of ways to hide what he did he begins to remember the man he killed and the events leading up to the tragedy. This is a hard movie to review and explain. The movie is good and Church is great in it but on the other hand it is pretty slow moving and not much happens. The movie reminded me a lot of A Single Shot which came out a few months ago. Both deal with accidental killings and the lengths these loners will go to to cover up what they did from the world but are unable to run away from it mentally. If you liked the Single Shot movie you will enjoy this. For everyone else it is one you will either like or one you may not be able to finish. Give it a chance though you may be surprised. Overall, good acting and Church does such a great job that it's almost worth watching just for him. I give this a B-.

Whitewash, directed by Emanuel Hoss-Desmarais and co-written by Emanuel Hoss- Desmarais & Marc Tulin, is a dark comedy infused with the rigorous purity and deep character analysis that sustains the enduring artistry of cinema's masterworks.As in John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, this tale is about a man and the regrettable killing he is responsible for while drunk. The two main characters (played by Thomas Haden Church and Marc Labrèche) plough forward as killer and victim become entangled in an increasingly hopeless predicament plagued with widespread wretchedness and despondency. The film is shot in the isolated forests of Quebec during the harsh of winter. The ideologically charged backdrop offers a feral setting in which the main characters, one French speaking and the other English speaking, seem to simply exist on screen. Their exchanges are simple and pure, dignified with an honest humor that inspires great sympathy for each of them and for the human condition at large. The movie ends with a climatic joke looking forward into an unwritten fourth act.