The River of My Dreams: A Portrait of Gordon Pinsent is a fluidly told yarn about an artist of the national-treasure kind.
The word usually ascribed to Newfoundlander Gordon Pinsent is "beloved," and a graceful new bio-doc on the actor, painter, writer and born raconteur won't change the adjective at all. Director Brigitte Berman (Artie Shaw: Time Is All You've Got and Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel) uses animated flashbacks and the recollections of family members and colleagues to chronologically unspool the life and career of a man whose artful doings have become part of the Canadian cultural landscape. Beyond those testifying on his behalf, mostly we hear from the well-preserved Pinsent, whose mellifluous narration and resonant quoting of Keats, Shakespeare and Lewis Carroll are easy on the ears. The soundtrack is oversweeping; his recollections (particularly on the actress Charmion King, the love of his life) are poignant enough without such an earnest score. That notwithstanding, the result is a fluidly told yarn about an artist of the national-treasure kind.
Brad Wheeler