TORONTO – You know the fall film season has arrived in earnest when the populace of Toronto, North America’s most movie-mad city (with stats to prove it), line up for hours to watch an Iranian flick.
Welcome to the 26th Toronto International Film Festival, where art and commerce get into bed together for 10 frenzied days (and 258 features).
This year you’ve got a male Marilyn Monroe impersonator who’s promoting mini bottles of champagne sharing the spotlight with the opening night film, “The Last Wedding,” an innocuous romantic comedy from western Canada.
While more than half the films are in a language other than English, a huge Hollywood contingent has been pouring in. Heading north are Denzel Washington, Steve Martin, Anthony Hopkins, Mick Jagger, Kevin Kline and Glenn Close.
Ethan Hawke is on hand with pregnant wife Uma Thurman to promote two films (“Training Day” and “Tape”) in which he finally outgrows his slacker prince image – which is sort of immortalized by his cameo appearance in a third film here, the animated “Waking Life.”
Edward Burns and ex-squeeze Heather Graham will reunite (a la “America’s Sweethearts”) to push his “Sidewalks of New York” (a generic, Woody Allenish romantic comedy), and Marisa Tomei was due here, too (she’s in the superb “In the Bedroom” with fellow Oscar winner Sissy Spacek, who as far as we know hasn’t lost her statuette).
American studios love the Toronto festival as a launching pad for their films – so much so that Paramount decided to crash the party and is junketing the Keanu Reeves sports comedy “Hardball” here, even though it isn’t part of the festival.
Warner Bros. has no fewer than 30 publicists on hand working the three films it premiered here over the weekend.
There is already very serious Oscar buzz surrounding “Training Day” (opening Sept. 21) in which Washington delivers what may be the performance of his career as a veteran Los Angeles narcotics detective who delivers a particularly tough street education to an idealistic newcomer played by Hawke.
David Mamet’s “Heist” is a thoroughly professional caper movie wherein a veteran thief (Gene Hackman) is pressured by his fence (Danny DeVito) into undertaking one last job. Due out next month, it’s superior to the recent (and very similar) “The Score” by virtue of Mamet’s crackling dialogue and more double-crosses than you can shake a stick at.
The biggest disappointment so far is Warner’s third offering, “Hearts in Atlantis,” adapted by legendary screenwriter William Goldman from a Steven King short story. Anthony Hopkins is terrific as a mysterious stranger who befriends a lonely 11-year-old in 1960, but the film, opening Sept. 28, is mawkishly corny and funerally paced – blame director Scott Hicks (“Snow Falling on Cedars”), who is hopelessly addicted to slow-mo shots.
Fox unveiled “Joy Ride” from cult director John Dahl (“Red Rock West”), a thriller about a homicidal trucker that heavily pays homage to Steven Spielberg’s famous 1971 telefilm “Duel.” Though it gets a little silly toward the end, this October release is great popcorn fun – maybe summer isn’t over after all.
