Toronto Film Festival: Day 9

September 13, 2008 by Liam
Filed under: Movie News

With only a couple of days remaining in the 2008 edition of the Toronto Film Festival, there were still a couple of movies left to be seen on Friday.

First up, a 9:00am screening of Gigantic. The movie stars Paul Dano as Brian, a mattress salesman who dreams of one day adopting a Chinese baby. (Who says Hollywood can’t come up with an original story!?) So, one day he’s working in the store and in walks Al (John Goodman) who is looking for a mattress. Brian helps him out and Al makes arrangements for his daughter Happy (Zooey Deschanel) to pick up the mattress and soon a relationship develops between Brian and Happy.

I really don’t know what to say about this movie. I’m not quite sure what I was expecting but the movie was a bit of a surprise to me. Great performances all around, but the story just didn’t work on every level. (What was the point of Brian’s homeless stalker?) I guess I might describe the movie as a “quirky” — but that would be an understatement. Definitely not for all audiences but it’ll likely find a home with fans who can appreciate this kind of story.

Following Gigantic, I did something that I’ve never really done before. I walked into the middle of a movie. For the most part, this is a big no-no for me. I mean, who really wants to watch half a movie, right? But, it was in the same building, so I took the chance and made my way upstairs for a screening of The Lucky Ones.

The movie stars Rachel McAdams, Tim Robbins and Michael Pena as a trio of soldiers who make their way back to the United States and begin a road trip where they help each other deal with whatever issues they’ve got going on. McAdams plays a girl named Colee who wants to return a fallen soldier’s guitar to his family. Robbins plays Fred Cheever who is dealing with some family and financial problems. Pena plays T.K. Poole who was wounded overseas and is afraid he won’t be able to “perform” for his fiancée. For whatever reason, I wasn’t a fan of this movie. Perhaps it was because I missed the first 30-40 minutes. Or perhaps it was because I’ve about had my fill of this same movie over and over again. (ie. “Home of the Brave”, “Stop Loss” etc.) In any case, despite the fact that I liked each of the individual characters, I didn’t like the movie as a whole. It brought nothing new to the table and I can’t, in good conscience, recommend watching unless you have absolutely nothing better to do with your time.

I wrapped up Day 9 at the festival by sitting in on some interviews for The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond. Based on a newly found screenplay by Tennessee Williams, the movie stars Bryce Dallas Howard as a young debutante named Fisher Willow who falls for a down-and-out farmhand named Jimmy Dobyne (Chris Evans). She tries to pass him off as her wealthy suitor, but things take a turn when she loses a priceless teardrop diamond earring (as the title suggests). The movie also stars Ellen Burstyn.

Available for interviews were Burstyn who sat down with co-stars Mamie Gummer and Jessica Collins as well as director Jodie Markell who sat with Bryce Dallas Howard and Chris Evans. Overall, it was interesting to listen to stories about the making of the movie, but eventually the talk moved to other projects the stars were making. Evans said there were no plans for a new “Fantastic Four” movie while Bryce Dallas Howard was coy about her work on the upcoming “Terminator Salvation”.

That about wraps things up for Day 9 in Toronto. Tomorrow is our last day in the city and we have tickets to a public screening of director Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler starring Mickey Rourke. Can’t wait!

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