Richard Crouse

SYNOPSIS: “Can I Get A Witness?” a new Canadian eco-sci fi/coming-of-age film starring Sandra Oh, and now playing in theaters, is set in a future where climate change and world poverty have been eradicated. To mitigate these modern-day issues, travel and technology are banned and every citizen must end life at 50. Documenting the process are artists as witnesses, like Kiah, a teenager on her first day on the job.

CAST: Keira Jang, Joel Oulette and Sandra Oh. Directed by Ann Marie Fleming.

REVIEW: “Can I Get A Witness?” is a science fiction film of ideas, not splashy special effects, that asks, What would you be willing to sacrifice for a better world?

The dystopian picture painted by director Ann Marie Fleming’s new film is something a little different from end-of-the-world movies like “The Road” or “Mad Max.” Fleming’s world is tranquil, picturesque, not at all the hellish landscape suggested by most dystopian stories. This movie imagines an idealized world, brought back from the brink of destruction and now free of climate change, poverty and inequality.

The price for a healthy planet is the elimination of anyone over the age of 50, a fate, the movie suggests, most people accept for the betterment of humanity.

The conflict comes, then, from the main characters, Kiah (Keira Jang) and Daniel (Joel Oulette), young witnesses whose job it is to document, through pen and ink, the ritualistic sacrifices and provide moral support for those who have reached their Best Before Date.

It is Kiah’s first day on the job. Her gig as a professional witness becomes personal as her mother Ellie (Sandra Oh) counts down the days to her fiftieth birthday.

Sacrifice lies at the heart of “Can I Get A Witness?” It wonders how far people are willing to go to create a better world for their children and loved ones. The solution is equal parts utopian and authoritarian, but Ellie and others seem more or less comfortable with doing their death duty. There is an aura of sadness to the scenes of sacrifice, but not resentment, and your enjoyment of the movie may well rest in your ability to buy into their unquestioning, altruistic behavior.

Instead of forgoing my life at fifty, I think I’d be investing in anti-aging creams. But that’s just me.

Sandra Oh’s warm performance goes a long way to selling the film’s audacious premise. Her character’s mix of grace and vulnerability, acceptance and commitment anchor the film in humanity and not just in the hot button issues surrounding its hypothesis.

As Ellie’s daughter, newcomer Keira Jang does much of the emotional heavy lifting. The film is at its best when she and Oh are in conversation. Their dynamic is familial, yet urgent as they approach the end of their time together. Those moments are heartfelt and do more in terms of answering the question at the film’s heart than any of the script’s rhetoric.

With very few exceptions, “Can I Get A Witness?” is subtle in its approach to the material. There is some clunky, scolding and expository dialogue and the use of the Ink Spots’ tune “I Don’t Want To Set The World On Fire” is a bit on the nose, but by the time the end credits roll, Fleming’s film proves to be a life-affirming sermon with several emotional high-points.