Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with the new batch of Toronto reviews! I have just finished watching FOUR DESPERATE MEN at the QT Fest, about a group of criminals holding the late '50s Sydney harbor hostage with a big, big gun. It was pretty damn sweet, but you'll hear your fill with Harry and Mori's reports, so here's the newest from Batphantom on what's going on up north. Enjoy!
WAH-WAH
Richard E. Grant, best know for starring in “Withnail And I” makes his directorial debut with a tale adapted from his own youth, growing up in Swaziland with his father (Gabriel Byrne), a teacher with the British Army, and his mother (Miranda Richardson), a bored housewife. Mom’s boredom drives her to screw the neighbor in the car, with the poor kid pretending to be asleep in the back seat. It seems that pretty much everyone posted in the area drinks heavily and/or sleeps around. Swaziland makes for a great backdrop for the story, but it’s told only from the British perspective, no civil wars here. Mom leaves the family, and after dad goes on a bender, little Ralphie heads off to boarding school, returning two years later to a different home life. Dad got remarried to Ruby, an American stewardess (Emily Watson) after meeting her only six weeks beforehand. Lucky for Ralphie, Ruby’s cool, and he quickly takes to her. Of course, dad still drinks. A lot. Ralph muddles through as best he can, and tries to live his own young life while trying to get mom and dad back together.
It’s a complex tale, with lots of nuances and unspoken words, and it’s beautifully written and directed by Grant. Being so close to the material, he’s able to put some real heart and soul into the tale, and gets fantastic performances out of everyone. Ralph is played by two young actors, first by Zac Fox, who then hands it off to Nicholas Hoult from “About A Boy”, who shows some great chops. Well worth seeking out.
DUELIST (HYEONGSA)
Ahh, my first foreign language film of the festival. Myeung-se Lee hasn’t set the world on fire yet, but he’s a flamethrower-in-waiting. The film is actually Korean, not Chinese as many assumed it was. Okay, I assumed it was. It starts out Stephen Chow, but ends up friggin’ Kurosawa. After a comedic action sequence to open the film, many present for the Press and Industry screening bailed, which blows my mind. I guess they were looking for a straight-up “Crouching Tiger”, but they missed out on a great film. It makes a quick transition from comedy to noir, then becomes a good old-fashioned wuxia style epic.
Self-proclaimed “crazy bitch” Namsoon (Ji-Won Ha) is a cop, and with her partner Ahn (Sung-kee Ahn) goes undercover to find out who’s been flooding the markets with counterfeit coins. Standing in her ways seems to be the mysterious warrior Sad Eyes (Dong-won Kang), but his motives are as unknown as his face. When he and Namsoon lock swords, they begin a battle of the heart as much as one of the blade. As the film gets more serious, so do the battle sequences, but Lee seems to be more interested in the artistic side of the fight than the visceral one. The visual style in the film is stunning. Many of the fights are shot in super slo-mo, and are edited in a style I’ve never seen in an Asian film, it’s closer to something from “Trainspotting”. The final sequence in the snow is absolutely breathtaking. The shifts in tone are a bit jarring to western audiences, but it’s worth getting into. Don’t expect a major epic, and you’ll be rewarded with a stylistic feast.
PROOF
John Madden’s first film since the disappointing “Captain Corelli’s Mandolin” is a nice little tale, and plays out like a cross between “Garden State” and “A Beautiful Mind”. It’s based on the recent Broadway hit, and Madden is able to adapt it to a solid film that neither betrays its roots nor is it held down by them. Gwyneth Paltrow is the daughter of a recently deceased famous mathematician (Anthony Hopkins). Dad died after a five year battle with insanity, probably brought on by calculus, the silent killer. Her sister (Hope Davis) is afraid she’s going down the same path as dad, and math student Hal (Jake Gyllenhaal) is going through 103 notebooks the old man left behind, which he hopes holds something brilliant that may have come through the insane ramblings. An incredible proof is discovered, but its author is difficult to prove.
It’s pretty obvious that the title refers to many things, not just the supermath. It’s fun to see the secret life of math geeks laid bare, but it helps to humanize those that society has deemed to be “NERRRRRRRRRDS”. Madden uses a non-linear structure to tell the tale that would have been difficult to do on stage, and it works well here. Paltrow’s character is quite annoying, but dammit, she’s just lost her father and she’s afraid she might be crazy too, so you have to give her some slack. Davis plays a different character for her, the selfish sister who fled to New York to live her life while dad was suffering in Chicago. It’s another frustrating character, but Davis gives her some depth rather than just making her the villain of the piece. Gyllenhaal is fine as the math geek/ possible romantic interest, he’s a damn sight better here than he was in “The Day After Tomorrow”, but his breakout role at this festival is in “Brokeback Mountain” where he plays opposite Heath Ledger as a gay cowboy. Missed that one to catch “Capote”. Hopkins has fun with the crazy math genius, but it’s a pretty small part. I’m sure Gwyneth will be on the short lists for Best Actress, but the annoying side of the character as well as the still-lingering backlash against her will probably keep that from happening. Overall, it’s a nice little film, nothing huge, just a pleasant character piece.
