Sunday, September 12, 2004
A tale of a whale, but not really
Continuing in the marathon cinematic viewing of the Toronto Film Festival, A Whale of a Tale, by local Toronto documentarian Peter Lynch is a tale not really of whales and whale such, but instead a journey of obsession, obsession and obsession. It is a story of a man possessed by the mystery of single whalebone excavated during the construction of the Toronto subway. Odd? Maybe, but downright confounding due to the fact that Toronto is thousands of kilometres away from the nearest ocean. The chase ensues as he charts a course across the continent speaking to prominent whale experts in a vain attempt to prove his belief correct. The documentary morphs from a journalistic report on the origins of the mystery whale bone to a personal revelation of into one’s own relentless vision, blinding objectivity and evidence, supplanting the result for the journey. Plus at the end of the film, I got to touch the whale bone. It was old and probably wouldn’t make a good soup.
