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Bleak Stories Featured By Toronto Fest
From Michael Moore's irreverent documentary on gun control to Todd Haynes' take on American suburbia, melodrama (and luminous movie stars) rule as this year's festival progresses.
Monday, September 9, 2002
By Paul Fischer
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TORONTO (FilmStew.com) - For movie stars and filmmakers in attendance, the second day of this year's Toronto Film Festival was interview-heavy as the Hollywood studios began rolling out their big guns.First up was Warner Brothers' White Oleander, based on the best-selling novel of the same name. The movie chronicles the life of Astrid (Alison Lohman), a teenager who journeys through a series of foster homes after her mother (Michelle Pfeiffer) goes to prison for committing a crime of passion. Set adrift in the world, Astrid struggles to become her own person while coming to terms with the challenges of living life on her own. A somewhat meandering movie-of-the-week tale, the film has going for it an extraordinary central performance by young newcomer Lohman, who encapsulates the character's arc. Pfeiffer continues to be a luminous presence and an unrecognizable Robin Wright Penn plays a hypocritical born-again-Christian foster mother.| Talking about being at Toronto, Wright-Penn said that she was "grateful for the festival" and was happy to be there in order to promote the White Oleander. "It's a festival which is all about the movies, not the personalities," she explained. The actress, who has deliberately shied away from a mainstream Hollywood career [Forrest Gump notwithstanding], concedes that she leads a celebrity life "by living with Sean [Penn] who on the one hand, is this incredibly private guy, and on the other has this fucking big mouth. It's quite a dichotomy." She also insists, emphatically, that she'll do whatever she can "to discourage my kids from taking up acting." | |
As beautiful as she is on screen, Pfeiffer is as radiant a presence off - a flawless beauty and the perfect actress to play a mother described as "the most beautiful woman in the world." On the subject of the power of beauty, a dominant theme in White Oleander, Pfeiffer was reluctant to discuss whether it can be used to one's advantage, but said, "I think it can be used as a weapon, but I also think it's a double-edged sword. I don't like talking about it because I feel it's a no-win conversation. No matter what I say, I can come off sounding like a jerk, but I think it can also be blinding." | On the other end of the cinematic spectrum (and that's what is always so much fun about Toronto's festival program), lies the dark and acerbic world of Secretary. Bold and sexy, this debut feature from Steven Shainberg made its debut earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival. The movie revolves around Lee Holloway (Maggie Gyllenhaal) who already has a few strikes against her when she applies for a secretarial position at the law offices of E. Edward Grey (James Spader). First, she was only recently released from a mental institution; second, after one day back with her dysfunctional suburban family she has succumbed to her secret obsession - self-mutilation. Somehow, she gets the job anyway. Then again, Mr. Grey is far from a normal boss. They embark on a relationship together, crossing lines of conduct that lead to Lee's extraordinary development. |
Gyllenhaal delivers a brave, raw and simply stunning performance. The actress admitted that she hasn't seen the film alone, even now, and saw it initially with her parents and brother Jake, whom she described as "my best friend and my harshest critic." Because Jake Gyllenhaal, also an actor, has Moonlight Mile up at Toronto, Maggie laughed, "We always seem to be at festivals where each other's films are screening." Next up for the actress is "a complete departure," in which she stars as a "smart and beautiful, confident young woman" in a new film with Julia Roberts no less.| Finally came the British melodrama The Heart of Me. Set in 1930's London, this is the story of Rickie Masters (Paul Bettany), who has long had an affair with his wife Madeleine's (Olivia Williams) sensual sister, Dinah (Helena Bonham-Carter). An unexpected event brings the two sisters closer together. Despite dragging in parts, Heart of Me is beautifully mounted and remains an effective and poignant study of British repression versus overt sensuality. Without any doubt, this is a performance piece and, after being covered in make-up for Planet of the Apes, Bonham-Carter is given a chance to shine. The film boasts some extraordinary performance, yet the film's very British tone may make it inaccessible in the U.S., but it should do very well in the United Kingdom and countries such as Australia. | |
On the third day of this year's festival, Pierce Brosnan showed off an very unBond-like performance in Evelyn, a fine, bittersweet drama crafted by director Bruce Beresford. The actor plays Dubliner Desmond Doyle in this true story, a man devastated when his philandering wife abandons their family on the day after Christmas. His unemployment, and the lack of a woman in the house to care for children Evelyn, Noel and Brendan, make it clear to the authorities that his is an untenable situation. The Catholic Church and the Irish courts decide to put the Doyle children into Church-run orphanages. Although a sympathetic judge assures Desmond that when his financial situation reverses, he will be able to get his children back, money is hard to come by. During that time, Evelyn and her brothers suffer the abuses of living in orphanages while Desmond struggles to secure finances. Now he must battle the courts to get his children back. | Brosnan delivers a multi-faceted performance in what turns out to be an inspiring film, well put together by Beresford. Talking about the film, Brosnan, who will soon be seen again as 007, admitted that doing Bond affords him the opportunity to produce and star in films such as Evelyn. "They'd think I was too pretty or whatever to play a character like this," the Irish-born actor said. Brosnan also admitted that he hates talking Bond. "Obviously I'll do what is necessary, but it's the same old stuff and boring old questions," he shrugged. So when asked what the 20th Bond film, Die Another Day, will be like, he sarcastically responded, "fantastic!" |
| From Brosnan to Michael Moore, is another gigantic leap. The documentarian and author arrived in Toronto with his latest film, Bowling for Columbine. With his trademark charm and wit, Moore sets off on a journey to the heart of the United States, hoping to discover why the American pursuit of happiness is so riddled with violence. From a look at the Columbine High School security camera tapes to the home of NRA president Charlton Heston, from a young man who makes homemade napalm from a recipe in The Anarchist's Cookbook, to the murder of one six-year-old by another, this is an alternately humorous and horrifying look at firearms abuse, destined to leave audiences dreading - but expecting - the next breaking news report about a home-grown assassin with a constitutionally-protected Uzi. Ferocious, bitingly hilarious and ultimately disturbing, this stunner of a documentary was first shown earlier this year at the Cannes Film Festival, where it was the first documentary to be selected for the event in over 40 years. | |
Bowling for Columbine will undoubtedly spark controversy, and that's fine by Moore, though he confessed that "at the end of the day, I make films that I would see on a Friday night, and I want audiences to be both entertained and angered." He very well may get his wish.Parker Posey also returned to Toronto this year with the acclaimed Personal Velocity, which premiered at Sundance, winning that festival's top prize. The once-labeled "Indie Queen" loves going to Festivals, such as Toronto, she revealed curled up in a hotel room chair, courting a flock of entertainment journalists. "I just love the excitement of it all. Toronto is the Festival where the audiences are really, really great," she said. | Posey, who does pottery between film gigs, has been using the festival as a way of promoting her next film as well; Christopher Guest's latest comedy, in which he takes jabs at folk singers. "I feel so lucky to work with him, and I get to sing and everything. It'll be great." |
Todd Haynes' highly-anticipated Far From Heaven also premiered here on the third day. Set in the autumn of 1957, the film revolves around the Whitakers in Hartford, Connecticut. Their daily existences are characterized by carefully observed family etiquette, social events and an overall desire to keep up with the Joneses. Cathy Whitaker (Julianne Moore) is the homemaker, wife and mother. Frank (Dennis Quaid) is the breadwinner, husband and father. As the story unfolds, Cathy's pristine world is transformed. Her interactions with her gardener Raymond Deagan (Dennis Haysbert), her best friend Eleanor Fine (Patricia Clarkson) and her maid Sybil (Viola Davis) reflect the upheavals in her life. Cathy is faced with choices that spur gossip within the community and change several lives forever.| Partly a satire on Hollywood melodramas of the 1950s, the film is a visually stunning work, which serves to explore the hypocrisies of American suburbia in a poetic yet sardonic way. A look at tolerance of the time, the film is enveloped in bright imagery that exemplifies the hyper-realism of the work, which is further enhanced by the melodramatic score of Elmer Bernstein. Haynes' film is a deliberately old-fashioned narrative, with what many critics are hailing as a masterful performance by Moore. The buzz here in Toronto around the Haynes' movie has it being called one the best films at this year's festival. | |
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