The TIFF Don't Stop

The Girl in the Park – Sigourney Weaver is an actress who I don’t get to see enough of. She’s up there with Meryl Streep in my book; both continue to get more interesting as they get older. The Girl in the Park is about grief and how people deal with tragedy. Weaver is a mother living an idyllic life when her young daughter is abducted from the playground. Flash forward fifteen years and Weaver’s character remains in an emotional stasis from the event. She’s divorced and working a meaningless job, living a desultory existence. Then a teenage screw-up played by Kate Bosworth (for the love of God, give this girl a sandwich—on screen and at the screening she looked like Skeletor’s sister) comes into her life. I’m sure you can figure out what happens next.

I actually liked the film for the most part, but I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it. It reminded me of a similar movie I saw at the festival a few years ago, P.S. starring Laura Linney and Topher Grace. Both movies had the same problem in that you knew where they were headed since they were firmly planted in reality. Weaver’s work is really strong here and Bosworth redeems her Superman Returns performance, but in the end it felt like hearing a story about someone that you really would have rather not known. The director comes from theater and I think the story would probably lend itself quite well to the stage. As a film though, it will struggle to find an audience.

Vexille – Another Midnight Madness movie; this time an animated one. Typical industrial dystopian future anime flick with interesting CGI animation with what looks like traditional animation layered on top—like they rotoscoped the CGI. Looked pretty cool, and it had its moments. Not sure if it was worth staying up until 2 a.m. to watch. Reminded me of a really long cut-scene from some Xbox 360 or PS3 game. I applaud the effort, though. Animation is a b!tc#.


The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford – Brad Pitt was here in Toronto to promote this along with the other most photographed human in existence, Mrs. Pitt. I enjoy Mr. Pitt’s acting. Seven, Twelve Monkeys, Fight Club, Snatch, that little scene in True Romance…the guy’s pretty good. It’s a shame that his celebrity overshadows his talent, but I don’t think he or anybody else is shedding any tears.

Leaving this film, I didn’t really feel anything. I left knowing that Casey Affleck is pretty talented. Pitt does a good job as the increasingly paranoid and forlorn Jesse James. The movie is dialogue heavy which was a problem because for some reason the acoustics in the Elgin Theater are not very forgiving to dialogue spoken in low, stilted tones. It tends to echo. I missed quite a few exchanges, but I don’t think the words were really that important. The film is all about tone. It is a meditation on death and how men prepare and deal with the inevitability of it. Unforgiven did a better job of this though.

If you dig cinematography there is a lot to like about the picture. It looks beautiful. Other than that, I don’t have much to say about it. It’ll be interesting to see if Pitt can get an audience for this thing. It’s a long player. Nearly three hours. Maybe I’ll watch it again on DVD and see what the heck everybody was actually saying. Doubt it’ll change my opinion much, but you never know.

No Country for Old Men – The Coen brothers are like those kids that you used to know in school who you never had to ask what they got on a test, because it was most likely an ‘A’. These guys very rarely falter. Miller’s Crossing, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, The Man Who Wasn’t There, Barton Fink…they’ve crafted an impressive oeuvre. (Even their last two films have admirers).

Now comes No Country for Old Men. I’d put it right up there with the aforementioned. I really loved the hell out of this movie. Tommy Lee Jones has given some really great performances these last few years. I really enjoyed him in a movie I saw two years ago at the festival called The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada and I hear he gives another great performance in Paul Haggis’ In the Valley of Elah. He brings this world-weary air that lends a sense of authenticity to his characters.

Javier Bardem plays the saint of all killers. He is a psychopath in the truest sense. He operates on a completely different wavelength than anybody else in the film. Great performance and more than a little scary.

I love the way this movie plays with conventions. It follows what seems to be your typical chase-thriller narrative and then just…well you’ll see if you decide to go see it. Suffice it to say, I didn’t really expect things to play out how they did. One review I read said that mainstream audiences wouldn’t appreciate the way this movie plays out, but I don’t think the Coen brothers have ever really considered catering to that audience. They respect their audience and that’s enough for me.

The dialogue in this movie is perfect in the way Mamet movie dialogue is perfect. People don’t actually talk the way they do in the film, but you wish they did. I’ll be seeing this again when it opens wide and then again on DVD. Best movie I’ve seen all year maybe.