Day 2: 2006 Toronto Film Festival

September 9, 2006 by Liam
Filed under: Movie News

It’s Day 2 of the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival and things are in full swing. Today, I caught four movies, and boy is my ass sore.

The morning started with and early screening of the festival’s opening night movie – The Journals of Knud Rasmussen. I had no idea what this movie was about going in – just that it chronicled the lives of an Inuit family. Although I found the movie a bit slow in the beginning, once I caught on to what was going on (and got used to the subtitles) it actually turned out to be very good. Basically it follows this Inuit family in the 1920s as they come in contact with some whites. The whites want the Inuit to guide them to an island up north. We meet everyone in the family and listen to their stories. When they begin their trek up north, they run out of food and begin to starve. It is then that they meet another Inuit family who have abandoned their traditions for Christianity. They offer the starving family food in exchange for leaving their beliefs behind and converting to Chrisianity – and slowly the family comes apart. The movie is pretty powerful – especially at the end. It’s not a mainstream movie, but it’s definitely worth seeing for the art house crowd.

Next, Borat. (Yeah, I know the title is actually Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan but if you expect me to type that over and over again, you’ve got another thing coming.) After the wild opening the movie had on Day 1, I was pretty pumped – and so was the rest of the audience because the theater was packed. And the movie didn’t disappoint. It was hilarious. It was so funny, I even missed a few jokes because I couldn’t hear what was going on with all the laughter. And offensive? If you’re easily offended by off-color humor, avoid this movie. They make fun of everything. (I couldn’t believe the laughs some of the anti-semitic jokes got. Yeah, I know that star Sacha Baron Cohen is Jewish, but how he got away with making this movie is beyond me?! You’d almost think the movie was produced by Mel Gibson there were so many shots at Jewish people!) And the naked wrestling scene? Disgusting – and hilarious. I can’t wait until this movie gets released. It’s gonna be a shit storm.

My third movie was Stranger Than Fiction. The movie stars Will Ferrell as Harold Crick. Harold is an IRS auditor who also is a little obsessive compulsive. He counts everything – brush strokes, steps to the bus stop. You name it, he counts it. One day, Harold hears a voice. The voice is narrating his life – accurately. Freaked out by “the voice” (and the fact that the voice has said Harold is going to die) he seeks the help of a literature professor (played by Dustin Hoffman). Together, they realize that the voice is actually an author (Emma Thompson) who is writing her latest book. The movie also stars Maggie Gyllenhaal as the object of Harold’s affections (and the object of one of his audits) and Queen Latifah as the writer’s assistant. This movie was a little different than I was expecting, mostly because it was a real departure from the Will Ferrell we usually see. If you’re expecting to go into this movie and get Anchorman or Talladega Nights, don’t. I wouldn’t necessarily compare Farrell’s performance to that in Melinda and Melinda but it’s not such a stretch. The movie is quiet and sometimes a little depressing. Yeah, there are a few good laughs, but overall it’s more a romantic dramedy than a straight out comedy. If I got anything out of this movie, it’s that Maggie Gyllenhall is amazing. A great actress and absolutely beautiful to look at too. This movie is worth a look.

My fourth and final movie for the day was Babel. The movie is directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu and stars Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Adriana Barraza, Kôji Yakusho and Rinko Kikuchi. It follows a few different stories about the challenges we face communicating with each other. One story features Pitt and Blanchett who are on a tour bus in the Middle East that is hit with gunfire resulting in Blanchett’s character getting shot. While they try to get her medical help, they deal with communication problems with the people in the small village in which they find themselves trapped. Next, there’s the story of their children, who are brought to Mexico by their nanny (Barraza) for her son’s wedding. On the way back over the border, they, along with her nephew (played by Gael Garcia Bernal) run into communication issues with some border patrol officers and are forced to flee. Finally, there’s the story of Chieko (Kikuchi) and her father Yasujiro (Yakusho). She is a deaf mute dealing with her own communication problems – and her father’s story ties into the Pitt/Blanchett arc. Overall this was a pretty powerful movie – although if I had one complaint it would be that, because it is told in a non-linear fashion, they kinda give away the end of the movie in the opening scenes which really took away from the urgency of the story. However, I would still easily recommend this movie.

In between my 3rd and 4th movies, I also had the opportunity to catch the Gala red carpet for Penelope starring Christina Ricci and Reese Witherspoon (who also produced). If you read my coverage of last year’s festival, you might remember that Reese Witherspoon and I shared a little “moment” and a photo. I was hoping to see her again this year just because she’s so damned cute. No photo with her this time around but I did manage a photo or two on the red carpet and also a little video (thanks to Craig Macrae at Sin Productions) which you can check out below.

Empire Movies favorite Reese Witherspoon at Roy Thompson Hall for the Gala presentation of “Penelope” at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival
So, four movies and one red carpet. I’d call that a pretty full day. Tomorrow promises to be another full day with Russell Crowe and Brad Pitt expected on the red carpet, a few press conferences, and hopefully a couple of movies. Stay tuned as we’ll be adding more photos and several more reviews.

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