TIFF 2013 Roundup

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TIFF 2013 Roundup

My partner and I usually attend the Toronto Film Festival and take in five movies. Some people watch 40+ movies over the 10 days. I don’t know how they do it. One year, we had three movies on the same day, and I had trouble concentrating during the third one. This year we were behind someone in line who’d gone to four movies the day before, and she said they were all blurring together and she wouldn’t do it again.

Anyway, here are my thoughts about the movies we saw, in the order we saw them:

Philomena

Philomena is about an Irish woman who was forced by nuns to give up her baby for adoption. The really cruel thing is that her son was already two years old. The mothers had to take care of their children while they lived and worked at the convent, and it turned out that the nuns were essentially selling the children to wealthy families in the US. In the movie, Philomena works with former BBC journalist Martin Sixsmith to find her son. This is all based on a true story. It’s a heartbreaking story, especially given where her search led.

It stars Judi Dench, so that’s a plus right away. It’s one of those movies that’s both humorous and poignant. It was the runner up for the People’s Choice award, and my partner’s pick for her favourite.

I enjoyed it. I’ll probably read the book that Martin Sixsmith wrote about the experience of helping Philomena find her son. My only niggle is that some of the dialogue didn’t seem realistic to me, in the sense that I felt some of the conversations wouldn’t have taken place between two people who hardly knew each other and didn’t seem comfortable with each other. Later on when they were friends, maybe, but not as early as they did in the movie.

Recommended.

Mary, Queen of Scots

This was essentially a biography of Mary, Queen of Scots. She was a first cousin once removed of England’s Elizabeth I, and she always wanted to meet Elizabeth, but never did. In the end, Elizabeth had her beheaded. I won’t go into the “story” because you can get the basics on Wikipedia or read a book. The movie was interesting and fairly true to the historical account.

There was a Q&A with the director after the movie. Someone pointed out that the historical record suggests that Mary was an astute strategist, but in the movie, she came across as a bit of a naive dimwit. The director seemed surprised and said that he didn’t mean to show her that way. I agreed with the person who asked the question. In the movie, she did come across as a flighty person who made decisions based on her desires, rather than on what was best for Scotland, and she didn’t seem to grasp the obvious political consequences of her actions.

If you’re a history buff, it’s worth seeing.

The Dark Matter of Love

The Dark Matter of Love was about an American family that adopted three children from Russia. One would be a challenge, so talk about jumping into the fire! Fortunately for them, experts on how children learn to love helped them to bring the three children into the family fold, but it wasn’t easy.

The documentary follows the family from when they get the news that there are three children for them, to going to Russia and meeting the children, to bringing them home and watching what happens when the bubble bursts and they have to face reality. In fact, they come down to earth with a thud while they’re still in Russia.

If you get a chance, I’d see it.

Ida

Ida is a Polish movie about a novitiate who’s about to take her vows, but the convent insists that she first meet her aunt, her only surviving relative. Ida doesn’t know much about her background, because she was left at the convent as a baby during WW2, and when the war was over, her aunt refused to take her. In fact, her aunt had refused to even see her up to that point.

When Ida visits her aunt, she discovers that she’s Jewish and her parents were killed by a family who at first hid them from the Nazis. But then I guess greed got in the way. Guess who ended up with the Jewish family’s farm?

Of course, the question is, does Ida take her vows and become a nun? I won’t spoil it for you!

It was a powerful movie and my favourite. It won the Special Presentations Prize. If you’re into story and character, definitely see this one, if you can.

Gravity

Gravity is a blockbuster movie that will be released in early October, and it was shown in 3D. The effects are fantastic. Debris comes spinning toward you, and you really believe that the characters are in space. The director has said that they didn’t even have the technology required to make the movie a few years ago. So as a movie experience, this one shines.

But…it’s really thin on story, and the story is aggravating in places. Sandra Bullock’s character is supposed to be a very smart woman who’s on the mission to install some system she’s developed. It was a space shuttle mission (I guess before the shuttle program was cancelled). I’m sure the space shuttle crew trains together for months before they go on a mission, but the mission commander asks her basic questions, like “Is there a Mr. Stone?” Come on, he’d already know that. There had to be a better way to convey the information to the audience. Usually my story critic doesn’t stir when it comes to movies, but that was just too jarring to overlook.

Also, there’s the usual problem of the smart woman having to be bailed out by a man. I don’t want to spoil anything here, but it was especially aggravating this time because of how it happened. I don’t know why smart women aren’t allowed to actually be smart in movies. Early on, the movie made a point of telling the audience how intelligent Dr. Stone is, but apparently she wasn’t intelligent enough to save her own skin.

I’m torn about this one. Despite the story and the same old crap when it came to the supposed smart woman, I enjoyed it, because the 3D and the special effects kept me on the edge of my seat.

Conclusion

That’s my quick TIFF 2013 roundup. All the movies were entertaining, and so we enjoyed our time at the festival.

Have a great weekend!