Overview
A haunting exploration of love and loss, where secrets unravel in the shadow of grief.
Ember's analysis
- Pacing
- Measured
- Intensity
- Strong
- Complexity
- Layered
- Violence
- Moderate
- melancholic
- foreboding
- claustrophobic
- arthouse film night
- dark thriller night
What critics said
Critics generally found the film taut, chilling, and engrossing, praising its suspenseful direction, cinematography, score, and transformation of a stage play into an enigmatic thriller.
What sets it apart
May contain story progression spoilers
Agathe is kept unaware of Tom's romantic relationship with her deceased son, while Francis polices the family's public story.
Tom is drawn into the isolated farmhouse and its demanding routines, with the surrounding fields intensifying his inability to escape.
Francis's disgust and the family's concealment of the son's sexuality make social repression the engine of the thriller.
André Turpin's photography, held close-ups, slow motion, and Gabriel Yared's urgent score turn the farm into a heightened psychological space.
Films like Tom at the Farm, and why
The Night of the Hunter
shares rural isolation, repressed sexuality, family hostility, and mounting psychological dread
The Talented Mr. Ripley
shares Hitchcockian suspense, dangerous obsession, and an outsider trapped within a threatening social world
A Single Man
shares queer identity, grief, social repression, and emotionally volatile intimate drama
Boys Don't Cry
shares claustrophobic rural menace, homophobia, and a tense confrontation with violent masculinity
Movie Details
- Director
- Xavier Dolan
- Release Date
- 2014-03-28
- Runtime
- 105 min
- Rating
- 6.8 / 10 (873)
Cast
- Xavier Dolan
- Pierre-Yves Cardinal
- Lise Roy
- Evelyne Brochu
- Manuel Tadros
- Jacques Lavallée
- Anne Caron
- Olivier Morin
- Johanne Léveillé
- Mathieu Roy
Common questions
- What is Tom at the Farm about?
- A grieving man enters his dead lover’s rural family home and becomes ensnared in a dangerous web of secrecy, coercion, and denial.
- What is Tom at the Farm like to watch?
- Ember's analysis rates the pacing of Tom at the Farm as measured, its intensity as strong and its storytelling as layered.
- Is Tom at the Farm violent?
- Somewhat. Ember rates the violence in Tom at the Farm as moderate.
- What did critics think of Tom at the Farm?
- Critics generally found the film taut, chilling, and engrossing, praising its suspenseful direction, cinematography, score, and transformation of a stage play into an enigmatic thriller.
- Which films are like Tom at the Farm?
- Films with a similar feel include The Night of the Hunter, The Talented Mr. Ripley, A Single Man, and Boys Don't Cry.
- How long is Tom at the Farm?
- Tom at the Farm runs 105 minutes.
