TIFF 07: Viewing Room

Turned out that my Day 1 of TIFF was strictly a movie day for me. With no press conferences or gala events lined up that day, I was allowed to squeeze in as many movies as my brain could possibly handle! 

Fugitive Pieces (dir: Jeremy Podeswa) - Opening the Toronto International Film Festival is this dramatic and often touching film about a Polish writer named Jakob (Stephen Dillane) who is so haunted by his childhood memories that he has to learn to embrace them in order for him to live in the present. 

Though the flashbacks are often moving and powerful (Young Jakob escapes to Athens in which a gentle historian takes him in), the eventual lessons that adult Jakob goes through border on melodramatic and therefore loses much of the emotional punch of the 1st half of the film.    

The Brave One (dir: Neil Jordan) - I'm not sure why Jodie Foster is the goto actress for plots that basically go like: woman in peril = woman overcomes peril through personal wit and/or determination. I'm actually talking to Ms. Foster in a few hours, so I'll definitely ask her why she's drawn to these characters.

In the case of The Brave One, the issue of taking individual vigilantism when the law can't help you, is quite interesting. The transition from observer to violent participant is explained pretty thoroughly, but I'm not that sure it works in the end.

Young People F**king (dir: Martin Gero) - No, i'm not a pervert! One of the more eye-catching titles of the festival is actually about the relationships people have (ex-lovers, friends, one night stand, boring couple) as opposed to the act of sex itself (though we get some of that too).

Deftly directed by Canadian filmmaker Martin Gero, five vignettes between couples are intercut with each other, showing you the various perspectives of people when they are their most, ahem... naked. My personal favorite are the best friends (played hilariously by Carly Pope and Aaron Abrams) who decide one night to try each other out.  

And yes, it's a cute fun comedy!

Jar City (dir: Baltasar Kormakur) - I wasn't actually planning on seeing this film, but the fact that all public screenings of this film were sold out, I decided to give this Icelandic film a go.

I have to be honest, the dry humor mixed in with CSI drama didn't really work with me. But the Icelandic landscape (oh, it's depressing out there!) and weaving plotlines about two deaths (a young father trying to track down the source of  his deceased daughters genetic disease and detective trying to solve a murder of an old man) was enough to make me watch the whole way through.

Lust, Caution (dir: Ang Lee) - My last movie of the day was also my latest (clocking in a 157 minutes, my screening didn't start until 9:45pm!). But I just had to decide for myself if the film merited it's negative reviews. Well, I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised.

Lush in both it's visual and cinematic style (some moments felt like I was actually watching a classic film from the 30's), a young wannabe actress (played fearlessly by newcomer Tang Wei) is sent on a mission to seduce a Chinese military official (Tony Leung) who is a known Japanese collaborator.

Though everyone has been focusing on the infamous sex scenes (and they are very nude indeed), you quickly understand that these moments are completely integral in the breakdown of Tony Leung's seemingly impenetrable wall and Tang Wei's supposed ruse.

Lust, Caution does take awhile to get to the point (and even then, some will question if it was worth it), but by the end, like Tang Wei's character, I was caught up in the web of their lies and emotional truths.

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Posted by Stevie on September 6, 2007 11:23:00 AM EDT #