Rumours

It chronicles the inner workings of the G7 summit and centers around the relationships between some of the world’s most prominent leaders.

Yet if you know the work of Canadian auteur Guy Maddin, you can guess that Rumours won’t be a hard-hitting political saga dwelling on contemporary crises, ideological disputes, or diplomatic friction.

Instead, this ambitious genre hybrid — which Maddin co-directed with frequent collaborators Evan and Galen Johnson — uses that provocative backdrop for an absurdist comedy that’s very hit-and-miss with its steady stream of surreal gags and playful misdirection. The wildly uneven result is equally funny and frustrating.

The seriousness of the setting clashes with the silliness of the tone from the moment we’re introduced to the summit participants hosted at an ornate palace by German chancellor Hilda Orlmann (Cate Blanchett).

They include the leaders of the planet’s wealthiest democracies — the United States (Charles Dance), Canada (Roy Dupuis), France (Denis Menochet), the United Kingdom (Nikki Amuka-Bird), Italy (Rolando Ravello), and Japan (Takehiro Hira).

As they gather in an outdoor gazebo to draft a joint statement, bickering and bragging over dinner, people around them start disappearing. Strange sights and sounds keep interrupting.

Hallucinations lead to paranoia, which intensifies due to a shadowy presence in the adjacent woods. Is it protestors or terrorists or something more sinister? Amid their suspicion and panic, a power struggle emerges that accentuates their incompetencies and could carry apocalyptic ramifications.

Some of the details don’t even make sense, such as the American president speaking with a British accent and walking with a cane, but that’s fittingly never explained.

There are vague mentions of immigration, the economy, and other items of shared sociopolitical concern, but the film instead emphasizes exaggerated personal foibles, obsessions, and sexual tension.

For those on the same offbeat wavelength, that approach generates some scattered big laughs, such as Hilda mumbling flirtatiously about “the private sector” during a moment alone with her Canadian counterpart.

As it toggles between fantasy and reality, some of the visual and verbal gags are more subtle than others, designed to make you alternately laugh and cringe.

More amusing in concept than execution, Rumours is muddled rather than substantial, unable to sustain its comic momentum at feature length.

Rated R, 103 minutes.