Films about mass genocide and bettering the world are common, but in “Can I Get a Witness” the world has already been bettered. And instead of a megalomaniac with a plan to reset the world, it’s agreed upon through the Constitution.
The biggest concept of the Constitution is the concept of the End-of-Life ceremony, where people are forced to die at the age of 50. Where in our world, if we see an obituary of someone dying at the age of 50, we’ll say, “Wow, that’s young.” This is their end of life as they’ve fixed their world, ravaged by wildfires and everything we see in our world today. Now, they’ve fixed it through the One Child Amendment, as well as travel controlled and limited by the government. Too, technology is a thing of the past, electricity is scarce, and the “Is your refrigerator running? Well, you better go catch it” joke would only make sense for a handful of people.
Concise and Tidy World Building
Our main character, Kiah (Keira Jang), is just starting her career as a Documenter on her 18th birthday. She’s just starting her life, sketching people at the end of theirs, documenting pieces of their final moments.
She is partnered with Daniel (Joel Oulette), a sort-of arbitrator who is the one who has End of Lifers quite literally agree to sign their life away, and then bring them their box on their agreed upon day. He also makes sure End of Life ceremonies go as smoothly as possible. Kiah and Daniel are the witnesses in “Can I Get a Witness”
Ann Marie Fleming writes and directs the film, keeping her world building tidy and concise. Her story focuses only on a handful of people, namely the relationship between Kiah and her mother, Ellie (Sandra Oh). Their drama brings some of the best moments to the film, especially by the end of it; as Ellie tries to help Kiah make sense of the world before and understand how it is now.
Brought to Life with Impressive Visual
Visually, Ann Marie Fleming brings the film to life beautifully through her sketches and the sporadic animation by Kevin Langdale. The animation makes the film pop with brightness, like the main image of the film with geese flying behind Kiah’s head. A moment in the beginning of the film with warm notes and shapes emulating from an old record player, playing The Ink Spots’ “I Don’t Wanna Set The World on Fire.” Easily, this is one of the most inspired decisions of the film for how strongly the song reflects the problems of the old world.
It’s interesting what Fleming decides to focus on the film; choosing drama and finding the very human aspects of the film and these people, where another director with her story might focus on someone on the run from the imposed dead-at-50 sentence. Still, I love how she shows how each character comes to terms with their end of life. A scene featuring Patrick Gallagher, as Sam, features him telling lengthy jokes, in a way to procrastinate what’s to come.
“Can I Get a Witness?” has such a rich world with such intriguing ideas. There’s so much more here I wanted to learn about, and it doesn’t feel like 110 minutes is enough time to even begin to scratch the surface, but it answers a lot of questions. I just want more because it’s so interesting.
An Interesting Story that Leaves You Wanting More
It’s skillful writing, especially how Fleming gives us information. Even when we are in scenes with heavier exposition, it doesn’t feel like an information dump because the dialogue stays sharp. This is most true in a “group talk” session, where we learn about the other Documenter’s days. One character tells a story about a man who evaded end of life through plastic surgery and lived until the age of 65.
Fleming asks us to believe that mostly everyone agrees to this plan for the betterment of the world, showing us some naysayers and telling us about a government sector called “Compliance,” that sometimes has to use more violent force. At one point, in a conversation between our engaging stars Kiah and Daniel, Daniel suggests that humans are always going to take, take, take if they’re able to, but the enforced Constitution will save their world.
Kiah asks: “Do you think that’s wrong, wanting to live longer?”
Daniel responds: “How much time is enough?”
“Can I Get a Witness” is currently having its World Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, with its last public screening Saturday, Sept. 7, at 7 p.m.
