I promised myself that this wasn’t going to happen again-that I wasn’t going to spread out my notes from the Toronto International Film Festival over a several month period-and here it is several months after the festival, and I’m just getting going on the second batch! While lust, gluttony, and avarice are the glamour vices in the seven deadly sins, some of us have to own up to the horribly banal sin of sloth. These reviews are based on the notations I made in a notebook during the festival that I have-I hope-polished in such a way to make more readable and helpful to potential readers and film viewers. Owing to my slothful habits, some of my observations at that time have been updated. I have decided to set these statements apart from my original writing by setting it inside [ ] and using italics.

35 Rhums. Claire Denis. Written by Claire Denis and Jean-Pol Fargeau. Starring: Alex Descas, Mati Diop, Grégoire Colin, and Nicole Dogue. 99 minutes. Screened September 7, 2008 at 9:15 A.M. in Scotia Theater 4.

It seems unusual for French films to focus on people of color and even less frequent that the focus of a film on people of color not be on struggling with poverty and dealing with crime. Claire Denis’s film focuses on middle-income French of African descent-primarily on a father, Lionel (Descas), who drives a commuter train and his college-student daughter, Joséphine (Diop). This is a film about their lives, their loves, and-most of all-about their bonds with each other. Denis manages to immerse us into a community of basically normal people trying to get by and to get ahead in regular day-to-day life, and she makes it fascinating. Imagine, a film about people who go to work and care about the other people in their families. How could a movie that has no explosions, no car chases, no gunfights, and no sex scenes be fascinating? The storyline for 35 Rhums is more linear than some of Denis’s films, but the film is not entirely straightforward. There is a suicide that feels somewhat tangential to the rest of the film-though each of us in our “real life” is similarly exposed in varying degrees of intimacy to the tragedies of those we know-and the film’s resolution is ambiguous-yet clearly hopeful. The film features strong ensemble acting, and the cinematography clearly loves and caresses its principal actors. This film is a validation of family, friendship, and community. [This film does not yet have a U.S. distributor.]    ½

The Country Teacher. Directed by Bohdan Sláma. Starrring: Pavel Liška, Zuzana Bydžovká, Ladislav Šedivý, Marek Daniel, and Tereza Vorišková. Screened on September 8, 2008 at 3:15 P.M. in Scotia Theater 4.

A young teacher from a renowned academic family inexplicably (at least to his family and friends) relocates from Prague to a very rural backwater community. We follow him as he meets his young grade school pupils and begins teaching science. Gradually he becomes part of the community and starts to make friends-especially with a lonely widow and her son. However, he rejects her advances and-in a scene at his parents’ home in Prague-confesses that he is gay. This is an engaging film that immerses the audience into the ebb and flow of the main character’s life in the country. This is the film’s greatest asset. However, there is a pivotal incident that radically alters the tone of the film. Although the widow’s son is an older teen and is very much attracted to teen hottie Beruska, the teacher makes a very inappropriate sexual overture after a night of carousing when the boy is passed out. This is a violation, a breach of trust, a molestation, a crime that can have nasty consequences. The young man is livid, and the teacher is devastated to the point of attempting suicide. This will be a difficult scene for American audiences that have low (or the oft-uttered “zero”) tolerance for sexual abuse. The abuse incident is an isolated act for which the teacher clearly feels deep remorse, and there is no indication that he engages in a pattern of predatory behavior. Can it be overlooked? Can it be forgiven? Can the relationships survive what has happened? Can the young man turn the page? The film takes a hopeful approach, and the emotional journey as the characters deal with fall-out from this incident is another strength of the film. Despite the gay-themed storyline, the gay community may have difficulty embracing this film because the teacher-except for his ill-fated pass at the young man-has almost totally suppressed his sexuality even if he does finally openly acknowledge it afterward. From a storytelling perspective, the incident around which the story revolves seems to come from out of nowhere. There is little to suggest that the teacher is attracted to the young man-except that he happens to be an undeniably attractive teenaged boy-and even less to suggest that the young man-given his obvious avid interest in Beruska-would reciprocate his homosexual interest. This scene, unfortunately, fails to ring true. Many films may have scenes that don’t work, but-for this film-this is the one scene that is absolutely crucial to the story. This could, of course, have been easily remedied by some admiring POV shots or by having the teacher and the young man share some pleasantry or by having the young man be less certain in his heterosexual pursuit of the young woman. Although I enjoyed being immersed in the world of The Country Teacher and would like to share its tolerance of an isolated sexual indiscretion, this film will likely be a hard sell to both general and gay audiences in the U.S. [This film is being distributed by Film Movement and is currently in limited U.S. release.]   ½

Machan. Directed by Uberto Pasolini. Starring: Dharmapriya Dias, Gihan De Chickera, Dharshan Dharmaraj, Namal Jayasinghe, and Sujeewa Priyalal. Screened on September 6, 2008 at 3:45 A.M. in Scotia Theater 1.

This film is the directorial debut of Uberto Pasolini (also cowriter with Conchita Airoldi). He has worked in film for many years and is best known as a producer of the hit British film The Full Monty. Machan definitely shares a kinship with that film. It is the true story of a group of men from Sri Lanka with dubious life prospects posing as the Sri Lankan National Handball Team to gain visas to Germany for a tournament before disappearing into the underground world of illegal immigrants in Europe. This film makes its audience look at the problem of migrants coming to the more economically developed world from the perspective of the migrants. This is a portrait of poverty and dreams of new beginnings. Yet it is also demonstrates family loyalty. Stanley (Dharmapriya Dias), the eager beaver, buttoned-down businessman-in-waiting, is the driving force behind making the scheme become a reality, yet he cannot so easily eschew the bonds of kinship. This most definitely is a departure from the typical rags-to-riches scriptwriting formula, but sometimes real life-on which this is based-doesn’t follow formulas. A film that features an athletic team-even a bogus one-wouldn’t be complete without showing some measure of competitive spirit, and this one has that as well. Pasolini gets across-the-board solid performances from a cast of mostly first-time film actors. This film is an entertaining film that should do well with audiences on the festival circuit. [It may be worth noting that I had some misgivings as to whether Slumdog Millionaire-featuring a largely unknown Indian cast-could fully break through to world film audiences, and we all know how that turned out, so perhaps Machan-that has a story to which audiences can easily relate-may have a future beyond film festivals.]   

Flame & Citron. Directed by Ole Christian Madsen. Starring: Mads Mikkelsen, Thure Lindhardt, Stine Stengade, and Mille Hoffmeyer Lehfeldt. Screened on September 6, 2008 at 6:00 P.M. in Scotia Theater 2.

This World War II film about the Danish resistance to the Nazi occupation of Denmark addresses the murky moral ambiguity of war and its horrific consequences. Although covering similar territory as Paul Verhoeven’s Black Book, this film has a much less cluttered storyline since the film is based on the actual exploits of a two-man team of assassins as opposed to combining the experiences of three different women into one. The film’s title comes from the code names for the two men. Flame (Thure Lindhardt) is the daring, handsome flame-haired gunman who is ruthlessly efficient at what he does but is increasingly unnerved by the thought that the supposed Nazi collaborators he has killed may not be as guilty as he has been told. Citron (Mads Mikkelsen) serves as the thoughtful cautious counterweight to the risk-taking Flame but has difficulty in overcoming his aversion to committing cold-blooded murder. Both men have troubled relationships with women. Citron has had to abandon his wife Bodil (Mille Hoffmeyer Lehfeldt) and his daughter in order to serve the aims of Danish patriotism. Flame must sort out the emotions and intentions of the alluring journalist Ketty Selmer (Stine Stengade), who may be a double or even a triple agent. The film features strong performances [costars Lindhardt and Mikkelsen were both nominated for Best Actor in the 2008 European Film Awards], considerable violence, and a visceral punch. It would be a likely candidate for the Foreign Language Oscar [It was not Denmark's representative as that honor went to World's Apart] and is definitely likely to receive U.S. distribution. [It is scheduled to be released in the U.S. on July 31, 2009 by IFC Films.] 

Jerichow. Written and directed by Christian Petzold. Starrring: Benno Fürmann, Nina Hoss, and Hilmi Sözer. Screened on September 7, 2008 at 5:30 P.M. in Scotia Theater 4.

Set up like a Teutonic The Postman Always Rings Twice, this turns the power equation in the native-immigrant collaboration completely on its head. Ali (Hilmi Sözer) is a Turkish immigrant who has done well managing a series of snack bars in a number of German communities. He has plenty of money and a beautiful trophy wife (Hoss). His weakness is drink, which leads to a license suspension and the need for a driver. Thomas (Fürmann) is a German army veteran trying to put his life together after serving in Afghanistan. Just arrived home for his mother’s funeral, Thomas carries a wad of cash pilfered from his last employer-a low-rung crime boss. His dream of financing renovations at the family homestead ends with the brutal thud of his former employer’s blackjack against his skull that leaves him sprawled unconscious in the homestead’s front yard. Broke and unemployed, Thomas has two job offers: working on a cucumber harvester or being Ali’s personal driver. Thomas accepts Ali’s job offer and soon makes himself indispensable to Ali’s business. Likewise, he will soon become much more than just her husband’s driver to Ali’s wife, Laura. Fürmann and Hoss are both attractive actors so their appeal to each other is not particularly difficult to understand, but there is something about the abruptness of their mating that defies the human sexuality rules of engagement even for those on an accelerated schedule. Bolstering the credibility of their passion could have easily been accomplished by using facial close-ups to show their longing or using point-of-view gazes of admiration. While the film nearly works as is, it does not help that neither actor is particularly adept at expressing the sweeping emotions of a passionate love affair. Fürmann would seem to be perfectly cast as a tough guy and stoic hero, but otherwise he seems limited in range. The midsection of the film is spent in cat-and-mouse stalking fueled by lack of trust. These scenes are well done and suspenseful. Eventually, the two hard-luck German lovers decide that the only way for them to be together without being in absolute destitution is for Ali to die. Will their scheme work, or will fate intervene? Always bet on fate, but the film’s denouement will likely catch most film viewers by surprise. The film is engaging, but fails to provide the visual cues to make the lovers’ growing passion credible or to have the script endow any of the relationships with the depth and complexity to manifest an emotional punch. Filmgoers may find themselves spending some time reworking the film when they leave the theater, but they probably won’t find themselves especially moved by the film’s outcome. This one probably won’t linger in one’s consciousness for any extended period. [This film is scheduled for a limited U.S. release beginning May 15, 2009 by the Cinema Guild.]

The Other Man. Directed by Richard Eyre. Starrring: Liam Neeson, Laura Linney, Antonio Banderas, and Romola Garai. Screened on September 8, 2008 at 9:00 A.M. in Ryerson.

On the surface, this looks like a(nother) story about an unfaithful wife, a wronged jealous husband, and the title character. It eventually evolves into something much different. This is a well-acted and cleverly constructed drama that has suspense, humor, and poignancy [perhaps even more so due to events in Mr. Neeson's real life]. This is a unique film from a master filmmaker. It does, however, owe so much to its opening misdirection that it may “lose” some in the audience just as it heads off in a new direction (making some at the festival screening-as was revealed in the Q and A session with Mr. Eyre-looking like football players totally faked out of their you-know-what underwear). And, it can never approach the impact on repeat viewings that it will have for those seeing it for the first time. Some viewers may leave the theater perplexed and others-after learning the film’s central conceit-disappointed that the film was just trickery.   ½

White Night Wedding. Directed by Balthasar Kornakur. Starrring: Hilmir Snær Guðnason, Margrét Vilhjálmsdóttir, Laufey Elíasdóttir, Þröstur Leó Gunnarsson, and Ólafur Darri Ólafsson. Screened on September 8, 2008 at 12:00 P.M. in Scotia Theater 2.

Adapting Chekhov’s play Ivanov to film, Icelandic director Kornakur and his cosreenwriter Ólafur Egilsson have constructed a cleverly modulated film that balances farcical slapstick comedy and poignant drama about grief, guilt, love, and marriage. It is rare that a romantic comedy has an impediment between its lovers that seems authentic, but this one does. Strong ensemble acting-with special recognition of the actress playing Anna (Margrét Vilhjálmsdóttir), who suffers from mental illness-is displayed. There’s also a delightful soundtrack. This engaging film uses a broad palette of emotions. My wife-ever wary of Bergman-esque Scandinavian angst-calls this film angst-lite. Despite its wedding theme, the film doesn’t capitulate to a happy ending, and its ending is best described as guardedly hopeful. Belying the celebratory atmosphere at most weddings, that may be the most realistic assessment any marriage could hope for. [This was the Icelandic candidate for the 2009 Foreign Language Oscar. It does not currently have U.S. distribution.]   