More from Toronto tonight, so let’s dive in…
Robert Redford’s “The Conspirator” bowed this evening at a packed gala screening. At Hollywood News, Sean O’Connell brings up the already-getting-tired 9/11 parallels (which started with Patrick Goldstein earlier). He calls Redford’s casting decisions “questionable” but considers the film “a solid effort, a compelling legal drama and a determined character study that will please students of American history, modern and otherwise.”
The Hollywood Reporter’s Kirk Honeycutt says it “feels like a television film” but that Redford “does a good job in developing the drama” and “the film largely rests on a character played with considerable emotional energy by James McAvoy.” It’s a measured approval, in any case. The film is still seeking domestic distribution.
One anticipated title at the fest that has been pegged as a potential awards candidate is the Will Ferrell-starrer “Everything Must Go.” But Variety’s Peter Debruge has come away wanting, calling it “neither entertaining nor profound,” while nevertheless praising Ferrell’s effort as “a fine job navigating what, if mounted onstage or executed by a more visionary director, could have been powerful stuff.”
Honeycutt isn’t so diplomatic, offering straight out that Ferrell “is not quite up to his first dramatic role” and that the performance is “too one-note…Ferrell isn’t able to track the ups-and-downs in the story’s dramatic beats. Instead he falls back on physical humor and facial expressions that don’t quite get to the bottom of what ails his character.”
Sticking with the Reporter, on the heels of my thoughts earlier today regarding “Made in Dagenham” as a potential Oscar contender, and despite Justin Chang’s lukewarm reaction at Variety, Ray Bennett has charged back with a favorable take. He invokes Sally Field’s Oscar win from 1979’s “Norma Rae” and says “history might repeat itself with Sally Hawkins.” And there was reportedly no shortage of tears by film’s end today.
More as it comes…
Comments
4 responses to “TIFF: ‘Conspirator,’ ‘Everything Must Go’ bow, praise for ‘Dagenham’”
I can’t help but wonder if Redford could find better luck selling his film at Sundance (assuming he’s willing to wait that long).
McAvoy has gotten better/more ink than Wright in both those reviews. I think he’s great. But wasn’t this supposed to be a vehicle fo her? Well, it IS only 2 reviews.
I saw a few positive reviews/tweets for Everything Must Go. If it’s at the level of Debruge’s review, that’d be real disappointing, especially with the ScriptShadow review, which called it’s script “genius”.
Honeycutt forgot about “Stranger Than Fiction.”