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Tuesday, September 17, 2002

By Ron Weiskind, Post-Gazette Movie Editor

TORONTO -- "Whale Rider," a film from New Zealand about a young girl whose destiny is intertwined with her tribe's creation myth, has won the People's Choice Award at the just-concluded Toronto International Film Festival. Directed by Niki Caro, the movie was selected in a vote by festival audiences.

The Discovery Award, voted upon by media members, went to Peter Mullan's "The Magdalene Sisters," about four young women wrongfully committed to an asylum by their families and the Roman Catholic Church.

David Cronenberg's "Spider," starring Ralph Fiennes as a schizophrenic man released prematurely from a mental institution, was named best Canadian feature. Alexandr Sokurov's "Russian Ark," a 96-minute movie shot on digital video in a single astonishing take, won the inaugural Visions Award. The FIPRESCI award, chosen by international jurors, went to Gael Morel's "Les Chemins de L'Oued."

I managed to view 26 of the festival's 345 films (including seven I screened in advance). Here are capsule reviews of selected titles, listed in alphabetical order:

"Auto Focus": Paul Schrader returns to the dark side in this biopic about "Hogan's Heroes" star Bob Crane (Greg Kinnear), who led a secret life as a sex addict and pornographer. The film is more of a downward spiral than a linear story, but Schrader, as usual, pulls no punches.

"Divine Intervention": Imagine the Middle East conflict as a Jacques Tati comedy. Palestinian director Elia Suleiman's remarkable film begins with small acts of domestic defiance played as deadpan slapstick. These lead to larger absurdities and acts of quiet rebellion, including a balloon with Yasser Arafat's grinning face floating above Jerusalem. It's a fantastic fable born of frustration.

"Evelyn": Drama based on a true story about a father who fights the Irish government and the Catholic Church, which has taken custody of his children after his wife deserts them. There are no surprises anywhere in this film, but it's a handsome little piece of blarney, with Pierce Brosnan shedding Bond and putting on the brogue to play a shaggy Irishman with heart.

"Laurel Canyon": Lisa Cholodenko ("High Art") directed this film about a fortysomething record producer (Frances McDormand) in love with a younger musician as her embarrassed adult son (Christian Bale) moves into her house with his bride (Kate Beckinsale). Lifestyles get thrown for a loop in a lighthearted film that exhibits sympathy for each of its characters, flaws and all.

"Love Liza": Strange little film with Philip Seymour Hoffman as a computer programmer whose wife commits suicide but leaves him a letter he can't bear to open, despite pressure from mother-in-law Kathy Bates. Hoffman's bizarre odyssey includes model airplanes and huffing gasoline. It's about healing but also feels a bit like a long lead-in to a sardonic punch line.

"Man on the Train": Patrice Leconte directed this French movie about a bank robber (Johnny Halladay) who holes up with a cultured older man (Jean Rochefort). These unlikely housemates begin to yearn for each other's lifestyle as the movie explores themes of aging and decay. The performances are strong, but the film dawdles toward what seems an inevitable ending.

"Moonlight Mile": Despite its flaws, this is the best film I've seen so far this year. Filmmaker Brad Silberling, who was dating actress Rebecca Schaeffer at the time of her 1989 murder, exorcises some ghosts in this tale of a dead woman's fiance (Jake Gyllenhaal) and parents (Dustin Hoffman, Susan Sarandon) dealing with their sudden loss. The film's depiction of grief and how others react to it is perfectly realized, rescuing the movie from several dalliances with formulaic plotting.

"Punch-Drunk Love": Here's why Paul Thomas Anderson ("Magnolia") is our best young director. Who else could team Adam Sandler, in a grown-up version of his standard character, and mad-scene queen Emily Watson in an irresistible romantic comedy? True to Anderson's eccentric but positive view of humanity, the movie builds its quirky charm out of the lonely lives of its unconventional characters, making brilliant use of sound, music and the cinematic medium.

"Rabbit-Proof Fence": Philip Noyce directed this powerful drama about three mixed-race children taken from their Aborigine parents, as Australian law once allowed, to be trained as domestic servants. Their struggle to escape capture as they trek more than 1,000 miles through the unrelenting desert is stirring, even as the racial superiority assumed by the Australian authorities is infuriating.

"Russian Ark": An amazing movie that consists of a single shot that lasts 96 minutes and transports us in a haze through Russian history as two men trapped out of time lead us through the cultural treasures of the Hermitage. The film's dreamy pace may get to you at times, but you will marvel at the choreography of the film's final sequence, a royal ball in which the camera maneuvers through hundreds of costumed extras.

"Spirited Away": The great Japanese anime director Hayao Miyazaki ("Princess Mononoke") captures us in his spell once again in this imaginative, dreamlike tale of a little girl trapped in a spirit realm who must use her wit, courage and selflessness to rescue her parents and find a way for them all to return to their own world.

"Talk to Her": Pedro Almodovar's latest film is a strange, sometimes shocking tale of two men in love with women who are in comas. The movie is a stinging commentary on the often queasy relations between men and women. And yet the film's humanity comes through, surprisingly enough, in the growing friendship between the men -- this from a director noted for his insight into women.

"10": Iranian master Abbas Kiarostami falls prey to the lure of digital video in this movie set entirely inside an SUV. As it travels through the city, the camera, rooted in one spot, examines the driver and her passengers. Kiarostami's skill is evident in the way he weaves a story from all this. But like so many other directors, he uses DV more as an experiment than as a means of making a real movie.

"White Oleander": Michelle Pfeiffer plays a headstrong artist convicted of murder who, even from prison, haunts the life of her teen-age daughter, caught in the living hell of the California foster-care system. Allison Lohman is terrific as the daughter, but Pfeiffer's luminous beauty works against the story, which seems like an unusually insightful soap opera.