SYNOPSIS: 10 year-old Leon is a lot of things, but normal is not one of them.  He plays with Lego in the middle of the street, trashes his neighbor's house and attempts suicide from time to time, which really annoys his brother Jerome.  Leon and his mother share a gift: they are terrific liars.  But when his mother abandons the family and moves to Greece, Leon's world falls apart.  To subdue the pain, he falls in love with Lea, the girl next door.  In the summer of 1968, they embark on a journey where everything is possible: learning to play Barbie, braving a Cyclops, growing up and, for good measure, buying a ticket to Greece.

EDITORIAL REVIEW: 10-year-old Quebec native Antoine L'Écuyer stars as Leon Dore, a very troubled boy who's striving for attention.  A perpetual liar, Leon goes to extreme methods to continue making people believe his lies; one lie leads to another, which leads to another, which requires Leon to make a radical change to his life.  To make matters worse for Leon, if he's caught in a lie he goes to even more extremes to change the focus from punishing him to saving his life.  Whether he's "accidently" hanging himself (which his mother scolds, "...it is strictly forbidden to hang yourself") or stabbing himself to cover up his breaking into the neighbor's home, Leon's life isn't easy.  Leon's mother, Madeleine, also finds herself lying to teachers and neighbors to protect her youngest from retaliation for his wrongdoings.  "The only thing worse than lying, is lying badly" advises Leon's mom, as she reminds him that he's got to keep his stories straight if he expects people to believe him.  Leon's older brother, Jerome, is the "sane" one of the family who only wants his brother to be happy and for his parents to get get along.  Divorce is a bad word, and both Leon and Jerome know that this is the fate their parents are heading for.  Leon shares a close bond with his mother and is absolutely crushed when he witnesses his mother get into a taxi - which may be the last time he ever sees her.  Madeleine, it seems, is heading to Greece to start a new life - without her sons.

Catherine Faucher plays 10-year-old Lea.  Lea lives next door with her mother and abusive uncle, and her tumultuous home life has not allowed her to be much of a child.  A loner at school, and a similar personality to Leon, she strikes a "love-hate" bond with him (there's a particular funny scene that involves Leon asking for Lea's panties that I'm sure everyone can laugh at regardless of your orientation).  Together they come up with a unique plan to steal money and buy a ticket to Greece with the help of Lea's brother who works at a travel agency across town.  But Lea has her own motives for helping Leon, and their plan may help her discover what she's been missing in her life - the truth.

There's many great things about movies not produced in Hollywood.  It's Not Me, I Swear has many of them, but one in particular I didn't notice until I watched the extras.  The kids in the film do their own stunts.  From dangling by a rope hanging from a tree, to falling down stairs, to scaling a two-storey building, the stunts are real!  There's nothing worse than spoiling a great "stunt" scene by shooting it extra wide as not to expose the adult stuntman desperately trying to hide the fact that he's an adult twice the size of the child actor he's supposed to be subbing for!  In It's Not Me, I Swear, you don't see that.  It's all very real, and for a movie where the main character hurts himself constantly, that's says a lot - save for the last scene, of course, which I won't describe as it is the climax of the movie ;-)  There is not even a small chance that you would ever see a Hollywood child actor do their own stunts.  I'm not bashing the Freddie Highmore's of the world, I'm just bashing studios, insurance companies, and the SAG (Screen Actors Guild) boss-types that essentially run Hollywood.  I'm sure every filmmaker would love to have their main star, child or not, to do their own stunts to add that extra realism.  I'm sure you would agree that in the films you've seen where the actor does their own stunts did add a "little something" sometimes sorely lacking in movies.  In many of the films we offer here you can see that - this one included.

This is a great film, hands down.  And I'm not being biased because it's a Canadian made film (I think we can all agree that Léolo is a great movie, eh?).  It's funny, dramatic, and gives a little insight into Quebec culture - Vive le Québec!  For those who aren't aware, French Canadian French is way different than France French.  And the French spoken in rural Québec is like nothing you've ever heard before (even French Canadians may need the French captioning here).  The DVD extras are fantastic, although pretty much all of them are in French only with no subtitles.  They're mostly all about Antoine.  His auditions, a making of narrated by him, and some behind the scenes material which is pretty funny (and isn't humor an international language anyway?).  Here's all the extras:

° Making of Documentary (French only).
° Bonus Clips with Antoine L'Écuyer (French Only).
° Leon and Leon (French Only).
° Antoine L'Écuyer's audition (French only).
° Trailer and Trailer Gallery.
° Teaser (French only).
 

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* This DVD will play in North America only.  This DVD should play in most players outside of North America as well, but it's not guaranteed. This DVD will play in any computer DVD-Rom.  This is NOT a DVD-R.

VIEW MULTIMEDIA:  

STARRING: Antoine L'Écuyer, Suzanne Clément, Daniel Brière.
DIRECTOR: Philippe Falardeau.
AVAILABILITY: In stock! Ships within one business day.
LENGTH: 110 minutes.
LANGUAGE: French, with OPTIONAL ENGLISH and FRENCH SUBTITLES.
SPECIAL FEATURES: 1.85:1 (16:9 Widescreen); Dolby Digital Surround 5.1 audio; 1 disc; Uncut.
VIEWER DISCRETION: Coarse language, violence.
PICTURE QUALITY: Excellent picture quality. (what's this mean?)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Canada (2008).
ALSO KNOWN AS: C'est pas moi, je le jure! (original title).
DATE ADDED TO OUR LIBRARY:  May 15, 2009.
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