TIFF 2009, Day Five
Sep. 14th, 2009 10:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
przedFour films today, and a few celeb sightings. Viggo Mortensen showed up to introduce The Road, though he unfortunately couldn't make it back for the Q&A. He was as lovely as always. (He also managed to get booed by not only wearing a Montreal Canadiens t-shirt, but putting the kid from The Road up to wearing one as well and carrying a Habs flag. He clearly enjoys taunting the Leafs fans far too much. *g*) And Alexander Siddig did a Q&A for Cairo Time, and is smart, funny and gorgeous in person.
Title: Triage
Director: Danis Tanovic
Country: Ireland/Spain/France
P's Rating: Recommended
Colin Farrell plays an Irish war photographer who runs into trouble in Iraq, and returns to Dublin, to find the friend lost track on while on assignment still hasn't made it home to Dublin. It's a solid enough film, though the central mystery of what happened to the friend isn't really that mysterious, and the film occasionally sinks under the weight of its own symbolism. But the whole thing is held together by a remarkable performance by Colin Farrell. It also doesn't hurt that Christopher Lee puts in a lovely cameo as the man who helps Farrell put his memories back together.
Title: Cairo Time
Director: Ruba Nadda
Country: Canada/Ireland
P's Rating: Okay
On the one hand, I'd like to give credit to a film that has an older woman (the lovely Patricia Clarkson) as its main character, and focuses not on cataclysm for its drama, but the little rituals of everyday life. On the other hand, there isn't quite enough there there for me to get wholly behind this film. But there are wonderful performances, both from Clarkson, playing a woman who arrives in Cairo to meet her husband for a holiday, only to find he's been delayed indefinitely, and from Alexander Siddig, who plays a friend of her husband with whom she forms an unlikely attachment. It's also lovingly shot, providing a beautiful look at every day life in Cairo.
Title: The Road
Director: John Hillcoat
Country: U.S.
P's Rating: Highly Recommended
This was the film I most wanted to see this fest, and it did not disappoint. Viggo Mortensen gives an utterly raw performance as a man trying to get his son to safety in a world that has been destroyed by some unnamed disaster. Director Hillcoat provides visuals that are beautiful and terrible, and Kodi Smit-McPhee is lovely as the son.
Title: The Hole
Director: Joe Dante
Country: U.S.
P's Rating: Recommended
Joe Dante returns to the screen with the first 3D film ever to screen at the fest. And it's a totally fun ride. Teenaged Dane moves to a small town with his mom and little brother Lucas. The two boys find a locked trap door in the floor of the basement. Along with their new neighbour, Julie, who Dane clearly has a crush on, they start exploring the bottomless hole hidden under the door, with spooky results. This is the sort of smart kids' movie I grew up on, eerie enough to take in the adults as well, but not so gory that a kid can't handle it. The leads are all appealing, and the final mystery of the hole does not disappoint.
Title: Triage
Director: Danis Tanovic
Country: Ireland/Spain/France
P's Rating: Recommended
Colin Farrell plays an Irish war photographer who runs into trouble in Iraq, and returns to Dublin, to find the friend lost track on while on assignment still hasn't made it home to Dublin. It's a solid enough film, though the central mystery of what happened to the friend isn't really that mysterious, and the film occasionally sinks under the weight of its own symbolism. But the whole thing is held together by a remarkable performance by Colin Farrell. It also doesn't hurt that Christopher Lee puts in a lovely cameo as the man who helps Farrell put his memories back together.
Title: Cairo Time
Director: Ruba Nadda
Country: Canada/Ireland
P's Rating: Okay
On the one hand, I'd like to give credit to a film that has an older woman (the lovely Patricia Clarkson) as its main character, and focuses not on cataclysm for its drama, but the little rituals of everyday life. On the other hand, there isn't quite enough there there for me to get wholly behind this film. But there are wonderful performances, both from Clarkson, playing a woman who arrives in Cairo to meet her husband for a holiday, only to find he's been delayed indefinitely, and from Alexander Siddig, who plays a friend of her husband with whom she forms an unlikely attachment. It's also lovingly shot, providing a beautiful look at every day life in Cairo.
Title: The Road
Director: John Hillcoat
Country: U.S.
P's Rating: Highly Recommended
This was the film I most wanted to see this fest, and it did not disappoint. Viggo Mortensen gives an utterly raw performance as a man trying to get his son to safety in a world that has been destroyed by some unnamed disaster. Director Hillcoat provides visuals that are beautiful and terrible, and Kodi Smit-McPhee is lovely as the son.
Title: The Hole
Director: Joe Dante
Country: U.S.
P's Rating: Recommended
Joe Dante returns to the screen with the first 3D film ever to screen at the fest. And it's a totally fun ride. Teenaged Dane moves to a small town with his mom and little brother Lucas. The two boys find a locked trap door in the floor of the basement. Along with their new neighbour, Julie, who Dane clearly has a crush on, they start exploring the bottomless hole hidden under the door, with spooky results. This is the sort of smart kids' movie I grew up on, eerie enough to take in the adults as well, but not so gory that a kid can't handle it. The leads are all appealing, and the final mystery of the hole does not disappoint.
