(Natalie Portman in Love and Other Impossible Pursuits)
Toronto Film Festival, Part 2:
Love and Other Impossible Pursuits is Natalie Portman’s second starring role as a mother, following this coming December’s Brothers. The ravishing actress has grown up in front of her eyes, first really showing her maturity with Closer. Now, this Don Roos’s vehicle paints the star in a very unsympathetic role as the homewrecker trying to find a place with her new family, while dealing with the issues from her painful past. Don Roos, a favorite filmmaker, responsible for The Opposite of Sex and Happy Endings, and in this picture, he leaves most of the comedy behind for this real slice-of-life tale. I really enjoyed seeing Natalie in this role. The film, though flawed, was one of the best I’ve seen at the festival.
(Cracks)
Some of the other films I caught out there were the 2 female boarding school dramas, Cracks and Tanner Hall, that were only noteworthy for the performances of Rooney Mara and Juno Temple and Eva Green respectively. Le Refuge, directed by Francois Ozon, was a beautiful portrait of a pregnant junkie bonding with the brother of her dead lover. If you’re a fan of Ozon’s smaller moody pictures you will be moved by this story.
(Precious)
I happened to miss a lot of the the bigger pictures that are bound for theaters later in the year (Up in the Air, The Road, Agora, Bad Lieutenant, The Boys are Back, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, The Men Who Stare at Goats) and even some of the indies that I’ve heard great buzz from (Fish Tank, Glorious 39, Mother and Child, A Prophet, Solitary Man), but I don’t think I missed much as the audience award went to Sundance favorite Precious, which still remains my favorite film this year and bound for Awards glory this season.
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