|
Great performances take pride of place at Toronto
2006-09-13
Penelope Cruz channels the ghost of Italian earth mother actress Anna Magnani and Forest Whitaker hunts for the tangled soul of dictator Idi Amin. Meanwhile, Peter O'Toole plays Peter O'Toole in a movie about an aging actor with an eye for the ladies and a hand for the drinks. Superlative acting has captured the buzz at the Toronto International Festival, setting the stage for the Oscar campaigns to come. With the Film Festival set to wind up on Saturday, the talk has centered about blowout performances of a handful of actors -- some stars, others respected journeymen who reinvigorate their careers after years of working less and less. Among names most mentioned are Cruz in "Volver," Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett in "Babel," O'Toole in "Venus," Julie Christie and Gordon Pinsent in "Away from Her," Kate Winslet and Jackie Earle Haley in "Little Children," Whitaker for "Last King of Scotland" and Sean Penn in "All the King's Men." "'Volver' just exploded at Toronto. The critics went wild for it and for Cruz. There is a sudden respect for her as a serious actress," said Oscars expert Tom O'Neil, an online columnist for The Envelope.Com. "One critic told me that he had seen her make bad movies in French, Spanish and English and now she was making up for it," he said, noting that the Spanish-language Pedro Almodovar film could catch an Oscar nomination for best film as well as one for Cruz. Cruz called the film her most satisfying movie experience yet and said she could not bear to part with the false ass that Almodovar had her wear to make her feel and look like the heroine of a gritty 1950s Italian movie. BUZZ FOR WHITAKER Whitaker, who returned to acting two years ago after a five-year gap, is also the talk of the festival. His performance is getting a similar buzz to what Philip Seymour Hoffman received in Toronto last year for "Capote," a role for which he later won an Oscar. Whitaker said he searched for Amin's soul. He did enormous research into the man, talking to many people who knew him, studying documentaries and television films and working with a voice coach who helped lower the register of his own voice. The result, according to many film experts, is movie magic. The 74-year-old O'Toole, who is tied with Richard Burton for the most Oscar nominations without a victory, seven, is being touted as a certain nominee for his work as an aging English actor who falls for the grandniece of a friend. The Hollywood Reporter said the film "hands the accomplished actor one of his best roles in years and he masterfully runs with it." And when O'Toole canceled a trip to Toronto, many worried if he would turn out to be as ill and frail as he looked in the film. A spokesman said it was only a minor problem. Veteran New York film critic Rex Reed says he would give the entire cast of "Babel" -- professionals and nonprofessionals -- Oscar nominations. But since he can't do that, he would opt for best supporting Oscars nominations for Blanchett and Pitt. "I was shattered by that film," Reed said. Other critics are raving about Todd Field's new film "Little Children," which stars Winslet as a suburban housewife who has an affair. Haley, a onetime child actor, plays a man who exposes himself to children. Christie, 65, a legendary actress who appears in few films these days, plays a woman destroyed by Alzheimer's disease while Pinsent plays her loving husband. Many have hailed Sean Penn's portrayal of a Southern demagogue in "All the King's Men" but the film itself received a mixed reception. A small man physically, Penn bulks up as he plays a character based on the late Louisiana Gov. Huey Long -- like all good actors, he transforms himself. (For more stories related to the Toronto Film Festival, please go to http://today.reuters.com/news/globalcoverage.aspx?type=filmfests &src=cms)
| 
