I'm long overdue for a Festival wrap-up, but you've got to know, it's like pulling teeth. Proceedings were so calm this year that attending the T.I.F.F. was less tiring than writing about it. I made plans to see as many movies as possible and then abandoned them in favour of soaking up the convivial vibe around downtown Toronto for those ten days, around its theatres, its hotels, its restaurants, diners, and fast food joints.
There were highlights: being introduced to ex-Brat Packer Andrew McCarthy by my friend at Odeon Pictures, unequivocally the most obsessed Pretty in Pink fan I have ever known. (Curiously, I know several.) Riding an elevator with Guinevere's Sarah Polley, who made endearingly human gestures of exhaustion and nervousness. (Oh so briefly) meeting Ralph Fiennes and Liv Tyler, co-stars of the upcoming Onegin, which closed the Festival. (It's a powerful, sad period piece.) Sitting in on a one-hour "Mavericks" Symposium with Paul Schrader, screenwriter of Taxi Driver and Affliction and other terrific pictures. Watching George Romero present The Tales of Hoffman, a film he's truly passionate about. (See article.)
You see, so much more goes on at the T.I.F.F. than just screenings. Filmmakers give lectures (as part of Rogers' valuable Symposium series). Parties are thrown. Friendships are renewed. "Variety" is free. Boys and girls fall in crush. Lobster is served! It's communal, like Woodstock--without the teenagers, mud, and fire, of course. (Think about it: singer Jewel attended both!)
If you're still reading this, you're probably hoping that I'll mention some movies, too. Here goes nothing:
Because I plan to review all that I saw in full at some point, I'll only discuss three pictures I haven't stopped thinking about since viewing them over a week ago.
They are The Cider House Rules, The War Zone, and Simpatico. The first I named because it's a best case scenario of a mainstream tearjerker; the second because it disturbed my sleep; the third because I can't imagine a worse film getting a major release this year.
The Cider House Rules stars The Ice Storm's Tobey Maguire as Homer, a gynecologist-in-training who leaves his home of over twenty years, an orphanage in Maine, to explore the world outside of New England. Homer finds work as the only white employee at a cider house, but he's so passive (because he has been warned of a heart condition that will flare up if he gets stressed out) that none of his black coworkers find him threatening. To give away more than that would be unfair of me. John Irving adapted his own novel into a screenplay, and indeed the film is filling, like a big, meaty book. Maguire deserves special mention, as do co-stars Michael Caine and Delroy Lindo. This crowd-pleaser earned a standing ovation at its gala presentation.
Tim Roth's directorial debut The War Zone is creepy and explicit--can this dark fable about an icestuous relationship (the second film to touch on the issue at this year's Festival) get past the MPAA with an R rating? I was shaken and stirred by its performers, particularly newcomer Lara Belmont (she resembles a young Olivia Williams) as the conflicted daughter. The film's spare visual design is also resonant. (Roth's long takes were perhaps inspired by his collaborations with Quentin Tarantino.) If only its resolution weren't so frustrating...
Last, and least, Simpatico, an abysmal character study about the aftermath of a horse racing scandal that is so utterly pointless, it proves once and for all Sam Shepard plays belong on a stage, if not in a recycling bin. Jeff Bridges, Nick Nolte, and Sharon Stone hit career lows as boozy stereotypes in a tizzy over some incriminating photographs that were taken twenty years before. (Spry youths Liam Waite, Shawn Hatosy, and Kimberly Williams, three actors who couldn't possibly look less like Bridges, Nolte, and Stone, play the same characters in flashbacks.) Only Albert Finney is watchable as the gaming commissioner out to seduce Nolte's goody-goody girlfriend (the omnipresent Catherine Keener). If I told you the film's ending without explaining the rest of the story, you'd be scratching your head. If I revealed the film's ending after explaining the rest of the story, you'd be scratching your head. Please, have the horse sense to stay away when it's released.
