Being Julia
Director: István Szabó
VVVV
A tour-de-force performance for Annette Bening in a brilliantly written part for an actress in her transitional years. Julia (Bening) is a renowned actress who lives for her craft both on and off the stage, but who is facing the twilight of her career. While her marriage is a happy one and she appreciates her large audience, she craves the excitement of her younger years.
When an appreciative (and young) American fan begins to woo her, she is not only flattered, but finds herself more alive than she has been in years. When the affair turns sour and the younger man’s affections turn out to be self-serving, Julia is forced to confront the reality of her situation and once again act her way out of her dilemma.
A dramatic comedy in the genre of the backstage drama (think All About Eve), Czech director István Szabó demonstrates a remarkably light touch in this film, and has an excellent understanding of not only the process of acting on film, but the methodology of acting itself.
In the director’s hands, Bening turns in the performance of a lifetime, delicately treading the complexities of Julia’s emotions without ever resorting to melodramatic excess within the form. The supporting cast is also excellent, and Jeremy Irons finally gets the opportunity to play something other than a sexual deviant. Sure to be on some lists come Oscar time, as it’s the kind of film the Academy loves to nominate.
Clean
Director:
Olivier Assayas
VVV
Part of the hype surrounding this film is the critical adoration of actress Maggie Cheung. Here she’s allowed to let her hair down and act ‘ugly’ (shades of Charlize Theron’s Oscar-winning turn in last year’s Monster) as the junkie girlfriend of a has-been rock star. When her boyfriend ODs in a Hamilton (yes, Ontario) hotel room, Maggie is forced to clean herself up both literally and figuratively.
Because of the funding strategy of the film (it’s a Canada/UK/France co-production) the film is set in all three locations, but it feels forced, as if for no other reason than to accommodate the funding conditions (though in the Canadian portion, Don McKellar gives a terrific performance in his small role as a road manager). As a result, the film seems somewhat pieced together, and events are pasted to meander from one location to another.
The thrust of Cheung’s character is to sober up enough to be a worthy mother for her wayward son, who is being taken care of by his grandfather, the aging and venerable Nick Nolte, who also does a good job in the film.
While there’s nothing particularly wrong with Clean, it’s difficult to tell what the fuss is all about. Cheung won the acting award at Cannes, but she’s been much better than this (see Wong Kar-Wai’s In the Mood for Love), and should never be employed to sing in a film again.
Normally, Olivier Assayas (Irma Vep) is a much more assured filmmaker, and his rendering of industrial Hamilton is exceptionally memorable, but he doesn’t seem to know exactly what he’s doing with this uneven movie-which he designed specifically for ex-wife Cheung, but ultimately highlights neither of their talents that well.
Drum
Director: Zola Maseko
VVVV
Featured in the Focus on Africa program, Drum tells the true story of magazine writer Henry Nxumalo in Sophiatown, the last refuge of free black men and women in 1950s South Africa at the beginning of apartheid. As the story unfolds, the writer is confronted by the knowledge that his free lifestyle is soon going to be a thing of the past as he encounters terrible conditions in working farms, prisons and the inherent racism built into the system of apartheid.
Taye Diggs does an excellent job in portraying the idealistic reporter and his tragic journey, and is extremely charismatic in his first leading role. The supporting players are equally talented, particularly Keketso Semoko as fearsome gangster Fatsy and Jason Flemyng as Henry’s English boss.
The film is also a timely one as it was made to coincide with the anniversary of the abolishment of apartheid. Viewers and world leaders would do well to note how little progress we’ve made in the world, and the film can be seen as a cautionary tale of the affairs of countries where one group is oppressed by another. Here the film puts a human face to the oppressed masses and leaves us helpless but to relate to their collective plight.
The Motorcycle Diaries
Director: Walter Salles
VVVv
A coming of age story based on the journals of Ernesto “Ché” Guevera and his best friend Alberto Granaldo, starring young actor Gael Garcia Bernal (Y Tu Mamá También and Almaldovar’s latest Bad Education, also in the festival), The Motorcycle Diaries begs the question of whether this extraordinary journey would have the same potency if the lead character were not the infamous revolutionary.
The scenery follows the actual cartographic motions of Ché’s journey around the South American continent, meeting the actual inhabitants along the way. While the protagonist eventually finds his purpose, it’s not clear to the viewer that the character in the film will actually become the historical figure.
The interesting thing about this film is that it seems to act as a counter-myth to the official Ché story. While the acting is excellent (Bernal embodies the idealism of the young revolutionary hero) and the scenery breathtaking to say the least, in the hands of Brazilian director Walter Salles (Central Station) the film seems to exist more for prestige and less for the historical record. So in the end, one wonders what the purpose of the film actually is. Presumably, Ché’s own journals might provide a better explanation-for while the film depicts the hero’s journey, it seems to lack the conviction and heart of the protagonist’s revolutionary spirit.
Saint Ralph
Director: Michael McGowan
VV
If you liked Rudy, you’ll love Saint Ralph. The story of a ne’er-do-well youth at a Catholic school in downtown Hamilton in the 1950s, the film begins as an homage to the highjinks of a Duddy Kravitz-like character but then veers into the schlocky sentimentality of an after-school special.
It’s explained that Ralph (Adam Butcher)’s moral faults are a result of his nearly orphaned status, and as his mother lapses into a coma, the youth’s logic leaps to the thought that only by winning the Boston Marathon can he perform the miracle that is needed to revive her.
On this quest he wins over the spirits of his town, first the over-friendly nurse who attends to his mother (Jennifer Tilly), next his Nietzsche-quoting divinity teacher (Campbell Scott slumming excessively) and finally the curmudgeonly old principal played by Canadian legend Gordon Pinsent.
First-time director Michael McGowan litters his film with underdog clichés, including the slow-motion shot of a gymnasium filled with people cheering on the hero, to the typical photo-finish in the marathon. It’s possible that Saint Ralph will appeal to some viewers, and is at times genuinely affecting (after all, the guy’s mother is in a coma, his father is dead and his house burns down for no reason) but its saccharine sweetness and love of convention render it merely typical. (Neil Jordan’s The Butcher Boy or Truffaut’s Les Quatre Cent Coups are far better films-though similar in content, they are magnificent in their execution.)
Seven Times Lucky
Director: Gary Yates
VVVV
The cold streets of downtown Winnipeg provide an ideal setting for Gary Yates’ debut feature that he describes as a “Christmas noir.” Here Kevin Pollack (The Usual Suspects) stars as down-and-out grifter Harlan, who attempts an elaborate scheme in order to win back the money he shouldn’t have lost on the horses. The result is a film with an incredible amount of layers of schemes and schemers, as you never know who’s on Harlan’s side. Yates does an excellent job of transplanting the typical L.A underworld into the Canadian landscape, recreating the smoky mood of noir and using jazzy Christmas tunes as an ironic counterpoint to the onscreen action.
Kevin Pollack exercises remarkable restraint in the lead role and Liane Balaban (returning to the screen after a long break post-New Waterford Girl) does a good job as both the ingénue and femme fatale. However, as with all plots with many unexpected twists (one need only look at the works of a certain M. Night Shamalayan here) the film buckles occasionally under the weight of its own ploys. Still, a clever and impressive debut feature.
Wilby Wonderful
Director: Daniel MacIvor
V
One of the greatest casts ever assembled in a Canadian film congregate in the second movie by one of our most acclaimed playwrights. Here, Daniel MacIvor rests on his laurels in this poorly written, spottily directed movie about characters in a small town who are all extremely depressed, for reasons we cannot discern, or really care about.
Callum Keith Rennie, Paul Gross, Rebecca Jenkins, Sandra Oh, and Maury Chaykin take turns brooding in their small East Coast island home where “scandal” rocks the front page of the weekly rag. The ensemble cast all work in isolation for the first half of the film, and by the time they interact, we have ceased to be interested in whether they will or not.
The saddest thing is that MacIvor works against his strengths in order to write a mainstream ensemble piece that likely no one will want to see. The beauty of MacIvor’s plays is found in his clever dialogue, but in this script, there’s not only nothing clever, but hardly any dialogue to speak of. Instead, the writer/director chooses to focus on close-ups of the actors as they stare off into space, or drag on their cigarettes meaningfully.
There is one wordless scene that comes 75 minutes into the film that shows that MacIvor is capable of much more, but it comes far too late. Instead, he has simply assembled an amazing cast and given them nothing to do. The drive towards the mainstream in recent Canadian film has created a certain amount of laziness-the assumption is that if you assemble a project that sounds good from the get-go, that audiences will simply flock to it. This strategy didn’t work for Men With Brooms, nor does it here.
