Toronto 2005: Day One

DAY ONE

It’s amazing how much of the Toronto International Film Festival happens even before the festival officially begins. The Gala Opening, featuring Deepa Mehta’s Water, was tonight was at 7 pm. There were 33 press screenings before that official kick-off.

And before 10am tomorrow morning, one has to choose between a press screening of that opener or the new Lars Von Trier or Weinstein Co. awards hopeful, Mrs. Henderson Presents, starring Dame Judi Dench as a proprietor of an arty strip club in war era London. (Even more importantly, the film is directed by Stephen Frears, who has been on a major role again lately.)

The first real standout of the festival is Danis Tanovic’s L’Enfer (The Inferno). Focus Features will have the inside shot at domestic rights, as they are handling foreign sales already. But this puzzle of a movie, loaded with the passion of men and women (but not much overt sex) is likely to do business a little better than A Friend Like Harry, which didn’t have the foreign stars that L’Enfer has, but did get terrific reviews and word of mouth. (Harry did $3.8 million for Miramax.)

The film, which has one of the great opening credit sequences you will see, seems to be a serious of fairly random problem relationships, mostly from the point of view of the women. What is the connective tissue? For a long time, it seems as simple as “women on the verge.” But it is more... a “more” that the festival catalog seems perfectly comfortable giving away, which kind of sucks.

Regardless, the journey is compelling, riding the waves of the choices these women make and made and the results of same. I won’t be sure until I see it again, but I do think the “more,” which is only really revealed late in the game, will make the entire journey that much more interesting.

Tanovic, who won the foreign language Oscar for the excellent No Man’s Land, which was released by the now-gone United Artists under Bingham Ray, shows a whole new color, literally and figuratively, in this film. No Man’s Land had the strong flavor of its subject, Bosnia-Herzegovina, which was also his country of origin. L’Enfer is nothing if it isn’t French, even though it directed by Tanovic and written by two Poles. Karen Viard is the central character, though Emmanuel Beart and Marie Gillain are given near equal measure. And the array of supporting cameos are all of quality, especially Carole Bouquet, who appears most of the time in a white wig and aging make-up.

Be very careful about reviews that want to tell you too much about this film. And then be prepared to return to chew on it some more yourself.

Also turning up was Fox Searchlight’s new acquisition, now renamed Imagine Me & You. The film opens at a wedding and takes almost no time to start inferring that we can expect the bride to succumb to a truer, deeper, lesbian love. It’s kind of the comedy version of Brokeback Mountain... except with girls.

One blog reader already wondered aloud whether the beauty of the women – something I questioned regarding Brokeback Mountain – was a problem for this film. And my answer was, “Kind of.” The difference, really, is that this is a very broad romantic comedy. (Amusingly, the film is listed as “Imagine Me & You (Working Title),” which is amusing because it seems so much like a Working Title production.)

The writer/director, Ol “Oliver” Parker is making his directing debut here and it is not an auspicious one. He’s got a sense of humor... but not a special one. Clearly, he has watched the Working Title comedy collection many, many times. He does not fail as badly as Beeban Kidron did with an actual Working Title project, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason. But still, the first weakness of the film is a lack of imagination in the direction and writing. That said, the lighting enhances the beauty of co-stars Piper Perabo (oddly, playing a Brit) and Lena Headey to perfection. If only that was enough.

It’s certainly not an unpleasant way of spending 93 minutes. But there is an endless sense of déjà vu’.

Mr. Parker has already won the jackpot in real life, marrying Thandie Newton and fathering two children with her. I’m sure he’s a great guy. But to paraphrase a great line from the Sam Phillips character in Walk The Line, if he had just one movie to make before he checked out, would this be it? I hope not. Like Phillips, I want to know how this guys feels... what is really important to him... what he really wants to say... not see him rehash every Britcom made this decade but with a Sapphic twist.

Personally, I believe that homosexuals should be allowed to marry. But that said, I do think of the joke someone told, wondering why in God’s name anyone not already stuck with that convention would want to chase it. Isn’t it “Die Hard... on a boat” time? “It’s Four Wedding & A Funeral but Hugh Grant has a vagina and nobody dies.” Yawn.

Tomorrow: The new Frears, The Corpse Bride, the new Soderbergh, perhaps a revisitation of Brokeback Mountain and Elizabethtown arrives, though I am due to go to a dinner in the second act... argh...

by David Poland