TIFF ‘09: Norton, Douglas, Green (Eva) and Farrell (Colin)

Most of the reviews I’ve been linking to out of Toronto have been trade-centric. I prefer to get a wider mix of opinion because the trades are usually more concerned with commerce than art, but reviews from the tons of bloggers at the festival have been sparse and late in coming for the most part. Or maybe I’m just not looking hard enough.

Leaves of Grass. In Tim Blake Nelson’s new film, Edward Norton plays twin brothers who are opposites in every way. Bill is the successful east coast professor who has left behind his working class Oklahoma roots. Brady is the marijuana-growing screw up who manages to drag Bill back home and turn his life upside down.

Screen Daily’s Jan Stuart

Double acts have been a particular specialty of Edward Norton since making his feature debut as a two-faced killer in Primal Fear, and he gets an opportunity to flaunt his forte again from writer-director-actor Tim Blake Nelson. Playing identical twin brothers who have landed on very different ends of the personality spectrum, Norton gives two bravura comic performances, shoulder-to-shoulder, that are likely to be acknowledged in at least one acting category come awards season.

Nelson has finessed a multi-faceted and often pricelessly funny black comedy here, showcasing Norton’s chameleon-like gifts as he darts between a groomed classics professor and the pot-growing brother who lures him into hazardous waters.

Solitary Man. Facing 60 with his business, marriage and family on the rocks, Michael Douglas agrees to take his girlfriend’s daughter on a trip to his college alma mater to pull some strings that will help her get accepted. You can see right away this is one of those deals where Michael Douglas will confront where his life went wrong and make amends. It’s a well worn conceit, but it’s also one that wears well and I continue to be a huge sucker for it. Plus, this one’s got LiC favorite Olivia Thirlby in it, not to mention Mary Louise Parker, Susan Sarandon, Imogen Poots and Danny DeVito. Written and directed by Rounders screenwriters Brian Koppelman and David Levien.

First the good news from Variety’s Justin Chang:

For a story about a guy who keeps disappointing the people he loves, “Solitary Man” is a movie of no small generosity: It offers audiences the pleasures of a screenplay whose every acerbic line is firmly rooted in character, and it hands Michael Douglas one of his best roles in years. And the actor more than returns the favor, delivering a dryly funny turn as a bull-spouting, skirt-chasing ex-businessman having a late-in-life family/career meltdown.

Douglas tosses off every self-serving pronouncement and phony promise with silver-tongued relish without chewing the scenery, in a characterization that fits neatly into the actor’s gallery of oily corporate rogues (“Wall Street,” “Disclosure”) even as it serves as something of an implicit rebuke. Although Douglas appears in every scene, he never overpowers his co-stars, and the script, gratifyingly, doesn’t let him monopolize the good lines.

British actress Poots (“28 Weeks Later”), who resembles both Kate Winslet and Scarlett Johansson, is a knockout in every sense, and reps Douglas’ most satisfying opponent here, with sterling pros DeVito and Sarandon running a close second. Fischer and Eisenberg movingly embody younger types who, because they see Ben as a father figure, are more susceptible to emotional wounds. Olivia Thirlby shines in a late-breaking role as Cheston’s g.f.

Now the bad from THR’s Kirk Honeycutt:

The solitary man in “Solitary Man” is thoroughly unpleasant for the entire running time of 90 minutes. Fortunately, he is played by Michael Douglas, which makes Ben Kalmen at least fascinating … in a perverse sort of way. So you’re made to wonder: How can a man who once possessed the gift of charm and success throw everything away to wallow in sleaze and deceit?

The answer to that question comes at about the 86-minute mark. It’s not worth the wait — and you aren’t likely to buy the explanation anyway.

The problem in having Douglas portray such a character is that the star does possess the kind of charm supposedly belonging to Ben Kalmen. So you can’t quite believe this deserts him so rapidly. His smoothness with business associates, a university dean and good-looking women turns to smarminess overnight. Not credible. Nor is the cause for all this self-sabotage.

Cracks. Ridley Scott’s kid Jordan makes her directorial debut with this film starring Eva Green (The Dreamers) as a worldly and unconventional new teacher at an elite British boarding school in the 1930s. Though she’s only trying to get her girls to break free of their repressive bonds, her free thinking ways threaten to upset the delicate balance of power among the girls themselves. When a beautiful and exotic new girl arrives from Spain, it’s a recipe for a breakdown of the social order.

THR’s Michael Rechtshaffen:

Marking an assured feature debut by Jordan Scott (the daughter of Sir Ridley), the gorgeously appointed film might have benefited from a subtler touch, especially in its later frames, but the performances she coaxes from her all-female cast receive top marks.

Twitch’s Kurt Halfyard:

I wish that the Harry Potter franchise had even half the energy and youthful confusion on display in this boarding school film.  The directorial debut of Jordan Scott (yes, daughter of Ridley) proving that a flair for memorable visuals may just be a genetic trait.

Ondine. In Neil Jordan’s latest, Colin Farrell plays Syracuse, a fisherman who one day pulls a young woman out of the water. He chooses to believe she is Ondine, a water nymph that will bring him a change of luck. A possibly darker spin on something like The Secret of Roan Inish, I’m a sucker for this kind of thing. A bit of magical realism set on a dramatic Irish coastline photographed by Christopher Doyle? Sign me up.

Variety’s Todd McCarthy takes my side:

A fairy tale mashed up against the jagged unpleasantries of the modern world, “Ondine” is a film of unusual narrative currents and pungent tonal effects. Literary to its marrow both in its Irish-lilted language and the storytelling tradition upon which it draws, this modestly scaled home-base outing from Neil Jordan is a decidedly specialized affair that will appeal only to certain tastes, but there’s plenty to appreciate if you let it seep in.

Screen Daily’s Allan Hunter however is not so impressed:

Neil Jordan takes a turn towards the whimsical with Ondine, a modern love story infused with strong flavours of Celtic myth. Jordan’s first original screenplay in more than a decade carries echoes of the fairytale elements he brought to early films like his 1984 feature The Company Of Wolves and to his work as a short story writer. The result is a moody, overlong mixture of realism and fantasy that may be too offbeat for most mainstream tastes. It is a film that needs to beguile an audience and lull them into a receptive frame of mind and that may take more effort than most audiences are willing to make.

Always an underrated actor, Farrell brings a brooding, Heathcliff-style presence to the role of Irish trawlerman  Syracuse. He doesn’t overwhelm the film with his star presence but just inhabits the skin of the character; a wary loner and recovering alcoholic, divorced from his wife and devoted to his daughter. He has the weary stoicism of a man who faces the world one day at a time and has grown to have few expectations.

Despite its many charms and sweet allure, Ondine still remains a minor work from a major filmmaker.

Filed under: Film Festivals, Reviews
Tags: Brian Koppelman, Colin Farrell, Cracks, David Levien, Edward Norton, Eva Green, Imogen Poots, Jordan Scott, Leaves of Grass, Mary-Louise Parker, Michael Douglas, Neil Jordan, Olivia Thirlby, Ondine, Solitary Man, Susan Sarandon, TIFF 2009, Tim Blake Nelson, Toronto International Film Festival