Canvas (2006 film)

Canvas is a 2006 drama film written and directed by Joseph Greco about a Florida family dealing with a mother who has schizophrenia. The film premiered October 2006 at the Hamptons International Film Festival in New York. Greco said the film was inspired from his childhood experiences with a schizophrenic mother.

Plot
Ten-year-old Chris Marino returns home after a brief stay with relatives, which was necessitated by the condition of his mother, Mary, who suffers from schizophrenia. At home, Mary's condition worsens, and her delusions and paranoia invite neighborhood contempt and result in visits from the police. When Mary is institutionalized after the failure of her medication, Chris is left with his father, John, who has retreated into building a boat in the family driveway.

One day, Chris goes to school wearing a shirt his mother has mended and sewn a patch on. When his classmates admire the patch, Chris claims he made it himself, leading him to begin making t-shirts for his fellow students as his form of coping.

Cast

 * Joe Pantoliano as John Marino
 * Marcia Gay Harden as Mary Marino
 * Devon Gearhart as Chris Marino
 * Sophia Bairley as Dawn
 * Marcus Johns as Sam
 * Antony Del Rio as Gregg

Production
Director Joseph Greco said, "The movie is certainly inspired by my mother, but I wouldn't say it's the exact same as my childhood. I didn't feel compelled to stick to the facts entirely. I would say it tells the emotional truth about my father and I coping the best we could." Joe Pantoliano served as a producer for the film and helped Greco to develop the idea.

During the film's third week of shooting on October 24, 2005, Hurricane Wilma made landfall in Florida and nearly shut down the production, but after waiting out the hurricane, cast and crew were able to persevere and complete the film.

Release
The film premiered at the Hamptons International Film Festival in October 2006 and was shown later that year at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival on November 12, 2006. It premiered in Germany on February 10, 2007, at the European Film Market and premiered in France on May 21, 2007, at the Cannes Film Market.

Canvas has also been shown at the AFI Dallas International Film Festival, the Sedona International Film Festival, the Nantucket Film Festival, and the Sarasota Film Festival.

The film opened in limited release in the United States on October 12, 2007.

Critical reception
On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 78% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 27 reviews. The site's critics consensus reads, "Canvas is a faithful portrayal of mental illness highlighted by terrific performances." On Metacritic, the film has an average score of 67 out of 100, based on 10 reviews.

Writing for Variety, John Anderson said Greco "has constructed a story that works both as a domestic drama and an allegory about mental illness and art." Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 3 out of 4 stars and wrote, "The portrayal of schizophrenia in the film has been praised by mental health experts as unusually accurate and sympathetic." Harden and Pantoliano's performances received much praise, with Jason Anderson of the Toronto Star writing of the latter in particular: "Best known for playing fork-tongued dirtbags in Memento and The Matrix, he proves to be far more appealing in the quieter role of a man who is fundamentally decent but unsure how to relate to his troubled wife and bewildered son." Variety commented Pantoliano gives a "cliche-demolishing performance as a sensitive family man who loves his wife no matter how paranoid, delusional or destructive she becomes." Anderson of the Toronto Star added, "Equally admirable is Greco's determination not to sensationalize the subject of schizophrenia. Instead, he keeps the disease firmly within a believable and thoroughly ordinary context."

Awards
At the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival, the film won the Audience Award and Joe Pantoliano won the Best Dramatic Performance Award. At the Sedona International Film Festival, the film won the Best Feature Film Award and Pantoliano won the Outstanding Acting Award. The film also won Audience Awards at the Nantucket Film Festival and the Sarasota Film Festival. The National Alliance on Mental Illness awarded the film with the Outstanding Media Award for dramatic motion picture.