"Percy" (a.k.a. "Percy Vs Goliath") is a biographical drama film based on the life of Canadian farmer Percy Schmeiser. Directed by Clark Johnson ("S. W. A. T.", "The Sentinel") and starring Christopher Walken, Christina Ricci, and Zach Braff, it is a relatively routine true story picture that benefits primarily from its main star holding things together.
In 1998, in the Canadian town of Bruno, Saskatchewan, elderly farmer Percy Schmeiser (Christopher Walken) one day discovers he is being sued by the Monsanto corporation for allegedly using their enhanced GMO seeds for several years. Due to his family's limited funds, Percy cannot afford to take them on by himself and so enlists the help of young hotshot lawyer Jackson Weaver (Zach Braff) and environmental activist Rebecca Salcau (Christina Ricci) to fight a legal battle to ensure the safety of crops belonging to farmers everywhere. Because of the constant media exposure, Percy and his team gain many supporters from all over the world who motivate them to keep going in their pursuit of justice over the domineering corporate businesses.
Since moving to a more rural neighbourhood many years ago, I have come to appreciate how hard farmers work to provide consumers with the best quality product they are capable of growing. Naturally, there will be various things that prove problematic along the way, such as the pressure to use GMOs or unsafe pesticides in their fruits and vegetables. In the film "Percy", we see that these factors are more serious than we may have originally thought, causing us to question the legality of corporate interference in selling harvested crops to unknowing customers. Although the film initially presents this as a locally Canadian issue, it is later established that there are corporations in other countries guilty of doing this as well. One scene in particular shows that farmers in India are suffering at the hands of big businesses bullying them into submission, which has contributed to high suicide rates among workers in that profession. It made me wonder how badly farmers have it in my own area as more than twenty years later, the issue of GMOs and pesticides are still a prevalent issue today.
There's little to say in terms of the directorial style here. Clark Johnson keeps things going at a simplistic level, intercutting between moments of Percy and co discussing legal matters with generic shots of the Saskatchewan farmland. Granted, it would be rather difficult to make subject matter like GMO seeds interesting to most audiences but for the most part he succeeds, showing that the future of a farmer's livelihood is at stake here. While I am aware this film is based on true events, I still wish it was less pedestrian in its approach to the source material. Everything felt as though it was following a typical template set by much better biographical dramas before it. As a result, I often found myself drifting in and out of my investment in the story, as I could tell right away how things were going to end due to the predictable direction that it was heading. Despite that, I was at least still curious to see how other farmers would react to the final court ruling of what Percy and his group ended up with.
It's easy to take for granted an actor like Christopher Walken, due to how prolific he is and the large amount of bizarre performances he's given in the past. Here, however, Walken demonstrates a dramatic range we often forget he's capable of, bringing a relatable sincerity to the role of Percy Schmeiser, a humble Canadian farmer who only wants what's best for the produce he grows (in this case, canola), bringing a necessary emotional centre to the film. I'm not sure how accurate his accent was, as American and Canadian accents sound almost identical to me, but I did feel he did a decent enough job convincing me that he was from North of the border. It was also nice to see Christina Ricci in a supporting role, as I consider her to be highly underrated. Ricci is one of those actresses whom I've never seen give a bad performance in anything she's in, and this film is no exception. I liked how her character remained a loyal ally to Percy, even accompanying him on international ventures to promote his cause. Zach Braff, on the other hand, wasn't featured as often as he should have been. This is a shame as I enjoyed seeing his character standing up for Percy and farmers everywhere based on his own moral principles rather than for monetary reasons. He is only prominently seen during the first and final acts of the film, which leads me to believe he was likely written in as a mere afterthought.
While the film is nothing groundbreaking, it's still a decent enough drama to hold one's attention for its short duration of 99 minutes. It proudly wears its anti-capitalist morals on its sleeve so anyone who likes movies that try to "stick it to the man" should derive enough entertainment from something like this. As for me, I liked the acting the most, mainly from Walken and Ricci, so I hope those two will work together on something else in the future.
I rate it 6.5/10.
