Toronto International Film Festival Ends

By Larry Anklewicz

Saturday, September 16, 2006

I 've just spent a few weeks watching over 40 films shown at the Toronto International Film Festival. These included a few very good films, some mediocre films and even a couple of films that I walked out of in the middle. This is not something I do very often.

I can 't give you a rundown of every film I saw. I described a few in my last column and I will go through some of the better films now.

THE BANQUET--a Chinese version of Hamlet with lush beautiful photography and lots of martial action.

AFTER THE WEDDING--Excellent Danish film about two men. One is trying to reconcile the past and one is trying to prepare the future. Very moving at times, but I'll be surprised if it is ever shown in theatres here.

CONFETTI--British comedy about a magazine holding a contest to pick the most unusual wedding. Started well and petered out. One couple wanted a wedding on a golf theme. One couple wanted a Hollywood musical wedding. The third couple wanted to get married and have all their guests nude. They were naturalists. Maybe that's why the film petered out.

BORAT CULTURAL LEARNINGS OF AMERICA FOR MAKE BENEFIT GLORIOUS NATION OF KAZAKHSTAN. Yes, that is the title of the film. And watch out. It's coming to a theatre near you in November. It is the crudest, most offensive film I've seen in years. And that's saying a lot. It offends Jews, women, gays, everyone. But it is so funny! It's about a TV journalist from Kazakhstan who visits America to study the differences in culture between the two countries. It is so crude, that I'm going to have to see it again, just to check out my first impressions.

STRANGER THAN FICTION is an interesting comedy starring Will Ferrell, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson. Emma Thompson is a novelist writing a new book. Will Ferrell is an auditor with the IRA. Every time Thompson begins writing, Will Ferrell can hear the narration. This doesn't really worry him until he hears that he is going to die. Then he gets worried and tries to stop his death. It's a little hokey, but it's good fun.

COPYING BEETHOVEN. In many ways it is a lovely film, but I don't know how accurate it is historically. The director also got too cute with some of the photography, using fancy focus techniques and panned the camera from one side to another very quickly. But the core of the film was interesting. This is the story of a young woman who is sent to help Beethoven (played by Ed Harris) to copy his music for the orchestra that is about to premiere his 9th Symphony. A friendship develops between Beethoven and the copyist and the music is always magnificent. A large chunk of the film shows the premiere of Beethoven's Ninth, which he himself conducted, despite the fact that he was deaf.

LAST KISS is the latest film by Zach Branff. It's about relationships amongst young people in their late 20s and early 30s. Everyone is getting married and having doubts about it or are married and aren't happy. Branff plays a guy whose girlfriend is pregnant and he is a bit overwhelmed by it. He meets a young college girl and goes off on a short fling. OK film but nothing great and nothing too profound.

ALL THE KINGS MEN is being released shortly. It is about two hours long and retells the story of the original 1940s or 50s film. Sean Penn is great, but the script comes up short and made this a bit of a disappointment.

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION is a very funny film about the making of a new Hollywood film called HOME FOR PURIM. It is funny to hear Catherine O'Hara spouting Yiddishisms. But the film sputters out towards the end. It's almost like they couldn't come up with a really good ending. It's still worth watching though and will be coming out in November.

GRIFFIN & PHOENIX is a bit of a downer. A guy finds out he has terminal cancer. He is divorced with two kids. He meets a pretty woman; they start going out; he finds out she also has terminal cancer. Not a fun movie.

GOLDEN DOOR is an Italian film about a family going to America in the early 20th century. Very long (or so it seems), very slow. The best part is the last 30 minutes. A few cuts would have made this film more bearable.

THE MISSING STAR. I liked this one. Italian film about a maintenance man at a steel mill in Italy. The blast furnace has been sold to some people from China, but the Italian knows that the furnace has a defect. He tries to tell the Chinese, but they won't listen, so he goes to China to tell them about it and to help them fix it. A Chinese joins him on his odyssey to serve as his translator. Lots of nice scenery.

DIXIE CHICKS: SHUT UP AND SING, a documentary about all the troubles that the singing group got into when they said that they were ashamed that President Bush came from Texas. Their CD sales fell and their lives were threatened. They had a really hard time of it for a few years. But when they began their 2006 tour in London, they made their point by saying exactly the same thing and showed that they were not going to be intimidated.

THE BUBBLE is an Israeli film about an Israeli guy and a Palestinian guy falling in love. It shows some of the stress they suffer because of their lifestyles, especially the Palestinian when he goes back to Hebron to attend his sister's wedding. The film is fascinating and ends on a very dramatic note.

BLACK BOOK is the latest work of Paul Verhoeven (Basic Instinct). It is a Holocaust film about a Jewish woman who joins the Dutch resistance during the War. It has a number of flaws, but it tells a terrific story.

THIS IS ENGLAND is set in England in 1983, just after the Falklands War. It focuses on an 11-year old boy whose father was killed in that war and who is being picked on by older kids at school. He becomes involved with a bunch of skinheads and the film centres on the racial tensions in England at that time.

INFAMOUS is another film about Truman Capote. Great performance by Toby Jones as Capote and it covers much of the same ground as the film Capote did. This one may be even better than the earlier film. It also has a great cast that includes Sandra Bullock, Jeff Daniels, Hope Davis and many others.

BOBBY was a film that got to me emotionally. It tells the story of a number of people at the hotel where Bobby Kennedy had his campaign headquarters during the California primary and where he was killed on June 5, 1968. Maybe it was because of the era, but I really connected with this film. I remember all of those events as if they happened yesterday.

What the film really does is show how one event changed the course of history in the United States and in the world. It ended the idealism and hope that was initiated by the election of JFK and by the possibility that Bobby Kennedy would be elected President.

The film was written and directed by Emilio Estevez and features an outstanding cast, including Martin Sheen, Emilio Estevez, Sharon Stone, Demi Moore, Harry Belefonte, Anthony Hopkins, William H. Macy, Christian Slater, Elijah Woods, and many more.

Thus far, it is my favourite film in this festival.

BONNEVILLE is a chick flick supreme. It is a road story starring Jessica Lange, Joan Allen, Kathy Bates and Tom Skerritt. Jessica Lange's husband has died and she is taking his ashes to California (from Idaho) so his daughter can bury them close to the family. The film is funny, has a lot of emotion and is a terrific ride.

AMAZING GRACE is a British film about the efforts to end slave trading in the British Empire at the end of the 18th century and beginning of the 19th. It's well acted and tells a very interesting story. The title comes from the hymn, Amazing Grace, that was written around that time.

EL CANTANTE is a drama about a singer from Puerto Rico who becomes a big name in the Salsa music field. He was a very successful and talented singer, but his life was in a shambles. He becomes addicted to drugs and this overshadows everything else. It's a sad story, but it has some great musical numbers and Jennifer Lopez is terrific as the tough no nonsense wife.

AWAY FROM HER is directed by Sarah Polley and stars Gordon Pinset, Julie Christie and Olivia Dukakis. It is basically the story of how a man deals with his wife's alzheimer and his devotion to her as she gradually deteriorates.