Toronto International Film Festival : Day 5

9:00AM - Merchant of Venice

Varsity

This is not a play I've ever read or seen before, so I was definetly not going to miss the oppportunity to see it now. I knew there was some controversy about the play, and some of the basic plot but not much else. I have ot say that until the ending of the courtroom scene I really didn't see much worth bothering about. The movie is introduced with a reminder that this play has to be taken into its historical context and that the opinions and actions of the characters are realistic for the period. I do agree (I had a conversation about the movie in the lineup for th enext film) that Shylock is a stereotype almost ot the point of caricature, but he's by far the central character and despite the obviously biased outcome an overarching message of "mercy is a good thing", isn't a bad one.

They movie was really well done, and Pacino is well chosen as a big actor in a big role. Jeremy Irons is well suited as the somber tortured merchant; he seems so familiar in a role like this. The actual story had some interesting moments but I can't say it ranks as one of my favourite Shakespeare plays. It feels a bit like Much Ado About Nothing, give me a Hamlet or Richard III anyday.

12:00PM - The Motorcycle Diaries

Ryerson

Somehow I had totally managed to forget that this was a biopic about the young Che Guevara, and I'm actually glad because it made the ending of the film just that much more of a payoff. You really get a sense that the journey has left a deep and lasting impression on Guevara, and then you learn just how much.

I really liked this movie. Shot on locations along the original trail of Guevara and his friend Alberto Grenada, I really got a sense of the wonder and diversity of the South American landscape and people. Starting off on a semi-post-university trip not unlike that many students today take (the whole backpacking across europe thing), the two learn through sometimes comical sometimes sad contact with locals and indigenous peoples that their life of priviledge is rare indeed. Off-hand I can't think of anything that took me out of this engaging formative journey, and at 126 minutes that's saying something

3:45PM - Shark Tale

Ryerson

I'm not sure what I was thinking when I chose this movie to see. Probably something like "there's nothing else on at that time I want to see", or "might as well see it cheap and early". In hindsight probably not the best way to pick a film and I don't think I'd do that again.

Shark Tale is to Finding Nemo as Ants is to A Bugs Life. Aside from finding the main character odd looking, especially for Will Smith's voice, the main problem I had is with the Story. It's a pretty basic "fish wants the high life so tells a big lie that eventually everyone finds out about and saves the day so all is good" story. There were some fun referneces for the adults, but they just didn't do it for me. Dreamworks animation is just missing "something" that Pixar work isn't. Story might be one thing, going after maybe "too voice-recognizable" stars may be another.

Posted at 11:57 PM to Film By: John Fairley