Saturday, February 23, 2013

In True Ceeb Fashion (i.e. Lefty to the Hilt), Layton Biopic Santifies Dead Lefty, Invents "Mean" Tory to Lampoon

The NatPo's Scott Stinson, who has screened what sounds like an excruciating, unwatchable exercise in hagiography, writes:
The Mr. Layton we see on screen is someone who never gives up and always stands up for what he believes in, whether that’s introducing a program to combat the spread of AIDS as a Toronto city councillor or deciding to fight an election campaign on a bum hip because he won’t be swayed by the odds stacked against him. There’s the occasional indication that not everyone agrees with him — the guy at Toronto council who tells him to “vote for SkyDome, you hippie!” when he opposed funding that project, for one — but if Layton ever encountered a political controversy in his life, and he did, it isn’t explored here. Instead, his opponents include a homophobe who throws a coffee on him over the AIDS program, the loudmouth city hall guy and a federal Conservative strategist — played by Erin Karpluk (from the CBC series Being Erica), but not modelled on a real-life Tory — who spends most of her time condescending to her NDP counterparts. At one point, when the NDP staffer Brad Lavigne warns her that her party shouldn’t underestimate his leader, you half expect her to pat him on his cute little head. (To be fair, her character is redeemed in the end, when she cries upon learning of Mr. Layton’s seriously ill health.)
You know it's fiction because in the real world it's NDP lefties who condescend to those who don't share their worldview, or their idiotic veneration/adoration of Happy (Ending) Jack.

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