Love story Laurence Anyways questions true acceptance of others

In Xavier Dolan's latest film Laurence Anyways, a devoted couple's relationship is put to the ultimate test and the filmmaker asks: have human relations and acceptance of others really improved today?

The romantic drama,named best Canadian feature filmat theconclusion of the Toronto International Film Festival this month,opens in Canadian theatres Friday. It's an emotional roller coaster that follows soulmates Laurence (Melvil Poupaud) and Fred (Suzanne Clment) as their relationship shifts and changes through the years.

"It's a movie about this moment [for] a couple when...the honeymoon's over," Dolan toldCBC/Radio-Canada's Kevin Sweet in a recent interview.

"You come to a point where you want to be yourself and you're becoming more and more of yourself and obviously asking the person with whom you are to accept this."

At the heart of Laurence Anyways is Fred,in an award-winning performance by Clment, who mustgrapple with herpartner's revelation that he is a transsexual.

"Transsexuality is the ultimate metaphor, for me, for authenticity in a couple," 23-year-old Dolan said.

TheFrench-languagedrama, which made its debut at the CannesFilm Festivalthis past spring,initially begins in the 1980s and skips forward to the 1990s.Setting films in the past shows "how poorly things have changed in matters of human dynamics," he said, noting that for instance, acceptance of transsexuals has not improved as much as people may have hoped.

Dolan noted that we're currently living 12 years after the time period depicted at the conclusion of his film.

"Maybe it's not that great. It gets better, but does it really?"