The Wind That Shakes the Barley
Director: Ken Loach
Loach’s film about the British occupation of Ireland in the early twentieth century and the militant oppression which gave birth to the IRA is as infuriating as it is relevant to current events. The film tells the story of two brothers, Damien (Cillian Murphy), a doctor on his way to work in London, while Teddy (Padraic Delaney) is a Republican devoted to expelling the British from Ireland. It only takes one heart-wrenching moment for Damien to switch gears, and join his brother in the beginnings of the IRA. However, as Damien and Teddy begin to gain more ground in their battle for independence, their world becomes increasingly divided and violent. Loach’s puritan style of filmmaking eloquently weaves the politics of Ireland’s turmoil into its characters, telling the story of a conflict that takes place in pubs and homes, not just the blood-soaked grain fields and offices of the English Parliament. While maintaining a bloody account of this turning point in Irish history, Barley also quietly delivers an allegory for the regenerative power of violence.
Rating: VVVV
Babel
Director: Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu’s
Babel, The ambitious final chapter of Iñárritu’s trilogy about death and isolation, is nowhere near as fractured as its predecessors, Amores Perros or 21 Grams, but also lacks the ebb and flow that made those previous installments landmark achievements in cinema. Exploring a broader terrain than the earlier films, Babel weaves together the separate stories of a traveling American couple, a Mexican nanny, a family of Arab goat herders, and a deaf Japanese girl, who are inexorably connected after single, accidental gunshot links them all forever. Named after the biblical tale about God’s attempt to confuse the languages mankind, Babel is an eloquently rendered tapestry of miscommunication, which postulates that in a world that has grown very small, the greatest distances are the ones that we ruthlessly impose on each other. Although the film has trouble matching the emotional wallop of Iñárritu’s previous features, Babel achieves an epic grandeur without losing respect for those intimate heartfelt moments of his trademark style.
Rating: VVVV
Breaking and Entering
Director: Anthony Minghella
Writer/director Anthony Minghella returns with his most current and solid film since The English Patient. Set in inner-city London at King’s Cross-where all manner of social and cultural collisions transpire-Breaking and Entering is the story of an architect, Will (Jude Law), whose family life is complicated by the distance between him and his common-law wife (Robin Wright-Penn) and her possibly autistic daughter. After his office is repeatedly burglarized by thieves with uncannily acrobatic precision, Will leaves his family crisis behind to survey the premises, and manages to pursue and catch one of the culprits, a teenaged Bosnian refugee named Miro (Rafi Gavron). Instead of turning his captive into the police, Will is intrigued by the young Miro and his well-meaning mother (Juliette Binoche). This new relationship with Miro and his mum force Will to embark on further explorations into the dark recesses of his own mind. Breaking and Entering is an intelligent and endearing allegory of building relationships in a community that’s demographically congested, yet at the same time socially disparate. Emotionally invested performances from an ensemble cast make this film likely to steal some spotlights come awards season.
Rating: VVVv
Catch A Fire
Director: Philip Noyce
Philip Noyce’s apartheid thriller Catch A Fire doesn’t so much recall his previous festival hits (Rabbit-Proof Fence and The Quiet American), but reminds us that the same man agreed to shoot Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger. The harrowing tale, based on the true story of Patrick Chamusso, is adapted by Noyce and screenwriter Shawn Slovo into an explosive action flick that plainly suffers from its anemic characters. Derek Luke plays Chamusso, an apolitical foreman at a South African refinery. When African National Congress militants bomb the refinery he works at, Chamusso is wrongfully arrested as the prime suspect. While under arrest, Chamusso falls into the hands of Nic Vos (Tim Robbins), a brutal colonel who oversees the torture and interrogation of the prisoners. Vos increases the stakes in this case by also torturing Chamusso’s wife for answers, a move that simply triggers further retaliation from the innocent man. While Noyce’s film is a solid thriller with political intent and (like every second movie nowadays) packs allusions to the post-9/11 American landscape, the screenplay fails to develop the majority of its characters beyond two-dimensional sketches-particularly Chamusso whose transition into a rebel is a lost opportunity in this film. The only exception is Tim Robbins’ trip-wired Vos, a conflicted villain who vehemently believes that his sinister actions are for an honourable cause. With less than half the screen time, Robbins’ character delivers what Luke’s cannot. So while Noyce maintains steady direction over Slovo’s thin screenplay, it’s Tim Robbins that keeps this Fire crackling.
Rating: VVV
Golden Door
Director: Emanuele Crialese
It’s a long crawl to America for the Sicilian immigrants in Golden Door, and the audience is made to suffer every painstaking moment of it along with them. The story of a family of workers who buy into tall tales from across the Atlantic of canoe-sized carrots, rivers of milk, and money that grows on trees, Golden Door traces every step from tense moments of indecision in Italy to their final tests at American customs. The film, which delves into the false pretences that built America at the turn of the twentieth century, has fleeting moments of odd amusement scattered along a narrative that is stretched far beyond its merit. However, it should be noted that the dedicated ensemble cast does try their hardest to fight the boredom of the plot, especially Charlotte Gainsbourg (the charming actress from 21 Grams and The Science of Sleep) who delivers precious relief when she enters the film playing a gold-digging mistress. While patient audiences may stay and endure the slim pickings this film has to offer, the golden door for most should be the one below the exit sign.
Rating: VV
King and the Clown
Director: Lee Jun-ki
A box office smash in its native South Korea, this outlandish tragicomedy set during the Joseon dynasty boasts the vibrant cinematography and fantastic aerial feats typical in Asian cinema, but is ultimately far too asinine to truly impress. Adapted from the diaries of a sixteenth-century tyrant, King and the Clown is the tale of two homosexual jesters, one of them a eunuch, who are arrested for staging a production that satirizes the throne. After narrowly avoiding a death sentence upon the discovery that the fanatical King is actually amused by the self-deprecating humour the clowns are ordered to keep the spoofs coming but with an ever-increasing dose of danger. This bizarre employment begins to take its toll when the clowns’ relationship is threatened by the King’s obsession with the exceptionally feminine eunuch. Though the acrobatic stunt work and rich set pieces are a pleasing distraction, the film suffers from stage humour that is either lost on this foreign audience or is just plain lame.
Rating: VV
The Toronto International Film Festival runs at theatres across the city until Saturday September 16. For more info go to www.e.bell.ca/filmfest
