TORONTO -- Somewhere in this city, people are laughing in the dark.

It's just a little hard to hear them, if you're sitting in serious movies such as "Reservation Road," about the hit-and-run death of a 10-year-old boy, or "In the Valley of Elah," in which a father investigates his soldier son's murder, or "Darfur Now," a cinematic call to action.

Tonight also will mark the world premiere of "Body of War," the story of a 26-year-old named Tomas Young, who was fueled by patriotic fervor when he enlisted in the Army two days after 9/11. He hoped for deployment to Afghanistan but was sent to Iraq, where he was shot and paralyzed in the first week.

Yes, the 32nd Toronto International Film Festival is bursting with fine films, but, some days, it's a little on the serious side. Last year's lineup included "Babel" and "Pan's Labyrinth," but it also had "Borat," "For Your Consideration" and "Stranger Than Fiction."

This year has some lighter films, too. When strangers or friends swap capsule critiques in line, they're likely to recommend Jason Reitman's "Juno," starring Ellen Page as a pregnant 16-year-old, or "Lars and the Real Girl," featuring Ryan Gosling as a lonely 27-year-old who orders a lifelike, full-size doll and starts introducing her around town as his girlfriend, Bianca.

But harder-edge movies seem to be trumping the lighthearted at this year's festival.

Talk show host Phil Donahue makes his directing debut with "Body of War," working with fellow director and Emmy winner Ellen Spiro. Eddie Vedder, who composed original songs for the documentary, is expected to perform at the Isabel Bader Theatre, where the filmmakers also will take audience questions.

Director Paul Haggis' "In the Valley of Elah" dates to 2003, when he found disturbing videos being shot by American troops posted on the Internet, he said in an interview Sunday.

One, scored with a blaring rock 'n' roll anthem, "looked like the normal stuff you see, bombs coming in and striking their targets and Humvees roaring by and tanks and people shooting and stuff, and then there was a picture of this young man probably 18, 19 years old and he had his arm around a burnt corpse. Then you see some more stuff, and there's another picture of a dismembered body, obviously somebody had been hit by a round, and one of these kids picked up a hand and was waving with it."

That video was yanked, but it made Haggis ask, "What the hell is happening to our troops, because I know these to be good men and women?" His movie, starring Tommy Lee Jones as a distressed father whose son returns from Iraq only to be killed outside his Army base, is fiction but was inspired by actual events. He has heard anecdotal evidence that he struck a nerve.

"I was at a screening last night and within five minutes, three women came up to me and said, 'You know, my son committed suicide his first weekend back' or 'My husband committed suicide the first weekend back,' " or one lived in fear of her mate just like a character in the movie.

Haggis, maker of the Oscar-winning "Crash" and a Canadian who now makes his home in Santa Monica, Calif., has been screening his new film for veterans. "We showed it to a bunch of them last night in Washington, D.C., and they stand up and they give testimony to this without being solicited."

For those hoping for some comic relief, "Lars" is as improbable as it is irresistible, with Patricia Clarkson as a physician who gently tries to find out what makes Lars flinch from human contact and fear loss and death so deeply. It's funny and touching and features a sad, sweet Gosling.

Whether fronting films light or dense, the names -- actors, directors, subjects -- are bigger than ever.

Jodie Foster promoted "The Brave One" in French and English. George Clooney dodged a question about the brunette beauty he kissed in Venice but gladly talked about "Michael Clayton" and pal Brad Pitt. Pitt, in turn, weighed in on fame past and present for his role as Jesse James and posed for photos with Angelina Jolie.

Viggo Mortensen fielded questions about an "Eastern Promises" fight scene in which he's nude in a sauna when two killers burst in. Tony Leung, star of Ang Lee's "Lust, Caution," said the NC-17 rating came as no surprise and that the director suggested he study the sort of macho performances delivered by Richard Burton, Humphrey Bogart and Marlon Brando to prepare for his role.

Sean Penn did not smoke and wouldn't take the bait when someone questioned him about Iraq. After delivering a blanket statement against war, he suggested the time would be better spent discussing the movie "Into the Wild" with the seven cast members flanking him on a small platform.

The stars of "The Jane Austen Book Club" have been busy batting away suggestions that their movie is a chick flick, not that there's a darn thing wrong with that. Already wearing that label is Helen Hunt's directorial debut, "Then She Found Me," loosely based on the Elinor Lipman novel and starring Colin Firth and the "Mad About You" star herself.

Woody Allen, Kenneth Branagh, Michael Moore, David Cronenberg, Julie Taymor and the Coen brothers are here, too, along with actors turned directors such as Penn, Hunt, David Schwimmer, Alison Eastwood and Stuart Townsend. Sometimes the documentary maker and the subject are both notable, as in the case of Jonathan Demme's "Man From Plains" about former President Jimmy Carter.

Hollywood North has the other trappings of the business, including security details, publicists, drivers, hairstylists, gift lounges, reporters, reviewers, photographers bearing professional equipment and camera cellphones, tales of late nights and overindulgence, and a still recovering Chicago film critic Roger Ebert taking his rightful seat on the aisle.

Most days, instead of venturing into the wild like Penn's subject, it's into the line, as festival-goers queue up to see one of the 349 films (271 features) from 55 countries or to buy breakfast or snacks or dinner on the run. The festival estimates there will be 340,000-plus admissions by Saturday's wrapup.