Chloe's TIFF Adventure

Ghost Writer: Michele A.

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*SPOILER WARNING*

3 1/2 out of 5 shovels

The latest offering from TIFF’s favorite son, the iconic Canadian film director, Atom Egoyan, is a stylish, erotic thriller starring Liam Neeson, Julianne Moore and Amanda Seyfried (you may recall her as sweet-as-sugar Sophie in last year’s Mamma Mia – my, she has certainly grown up!) But there is another star, especially for TIFF audiences – the city of Toronto itself. Toronto has often been used as a filming site representing other cities. In this film, it is Toronto AS Toronto, and it is spectacular.

The film opens with a surprise birthday party – but instead of surprising her college professor husband David (Neeson), ob/gyn Catherine (Moore) is “surprised” herself. Out of town on business, David misses his flight home and, consequently, his party, and Catherine's suspicions are awakened by a suggestive picture/text message she discovers on his cell phone the following day.

Instead of confronting him, she broods. She is having lunch with friends, and while in the restroom hears a young woman (Chloe, played by Seyfried) weeping in the next stall. Her motherly instincts aroused, she attempts to comfort the girl and a casual acquaintance is formed. She ultimately learns that Chloe is an “escort” catering to well-heeled men.

At this point, you have to suspend disbelief.

Question: Would a successful doctor pay a call girl to attempt to seduce her husband and report back on what happens?

Answer: Probably not. But in the dark, while munching popcorn, anything is possible. And, in this case, highly enjoyable.

Chloe does as asked and reports back, in detail, on what transpires between herself and David. Catherine is understandably angry, but she is also…well…turned on by the voyeuristic nature of their conversations. There are some artistically shot scenes between Chloe and Catherine (I recall something similar in Egoyan’s 2005 TIFF entry, Where the Truth Lies) as their relationship progresses beyond “play for pay.”

But Catherine wants out. And Chloe wants more. (Cue sinister music – the Mychael Danna score is wonderful, by the way.) Rebuffed by Catherine, Chloe begins to insinuate herself into Catherine’s marriage and family, unpaid and uninvited. Catherine forces a confrontation with David and…

Major plot twist, which I won’t reveal here. Not only because it is too much of a spoiler even in a review with a “spoilers” warning, but because at this point in the film, you will have likely figured it out for yourself.

And therein lies the major weakness in Chloe – the revelation which wasn’t a revelation to me, nor to two of my three fellow filmgoers. (My husband swore he didn’t guess, but we were at a morning screening and sleep deprivation due to too much TIFF partying the night before may have numbed his brain cells.)

For this reason, a film that was unusual in its premise approximately three-quarters of the way through became something nearly formulaic towards the end. The somewhat disappointing conclusion, however, didn’t ruin the film for me nor does it give me any hesitation in recommending it. Chloe would have gotten 4 shovels from me were it not for the late plot weakness - I give it 3.5 shovels for titillating sexiness-without-seediness, beautiful Toronto views, and solid performances from the three leads.

Reviews - A Single Man at TIFF

Ghost Writer: Michele A.

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*SPOILER WARNING*

5 out of 5 shovels

Tom Ford, known for designing beautiful things, has made a beautiful first film starring a beautiful man, Colin Firth.

I was fortunate to see this film at the North American premiere in Toronto on Monday night, September 14, and again on Wednesday morning.

We knew something was up at the Isabel Bader theater Monday night. We had tickets we had purchased the first day they went on sale and the screening (in a small theater which seats only around 450) was "rush only." When we got there, there were only a few people on the ticketholders' line and loads of people on the rush line (that's the line for those who don't have tickets but hope to get in at the last minute if all ticketholders don't show up).

When the screening was about to start, the ticketholders' line was still much shorter than the rush line - most unusual. Well, just before they let us in, the "swarm" arrived. A huge crowd of industry people were let in first - these were representatives from the major distributors there to view this film, a true hot property since it wowed Venice a few days earlier with Colin Firth taking home the Best Actor nod. (In fact, when the person who introduced the film gave the customary "turn off all cell phones" warning, she smiled and added "AND all the Blackberries.")

If you've read the excellent book by Christopher Isherwood (who also wrote the Berlin stories on which Cabaret was based), you pretty much know the plot. George Falconer, played by Colin Firth, is a gay British professor in his early 50's who teaches at a university in southern California. It takes place in November 1962 (the Cuban missile crisis playing ominously in the background), and George's younger lover, Jim (Matthew Goode) was killed in a car accident eight months previously. There are a few brief scenes of their life together - they had been together for 16 years.

In one perfect scene, they are reclining shoeless on opposite ends of the sofa, facing each other, their dog between them. Their personalities are humorously expressed in their reading material, each gently mocking the other's choice. (George is reading Metamorphosis, Jim is reading Breakfast at Tiffany's). They argue comically over whose turn it is to change the record on the turntable, Jim gets up in deference to George's seniority (he lovingly calls him "old man"), and the scene ends in a chaste kiss. They are comfortable together, as would be expected in a couple married 16 years - not legally, of course.

The book had to be difficult to transfer to film, as so much of the narrative was in George's thoughts. Colin Firth has always been skilled in expressing emotion with facial expressions, and this film uses those skills to full effect. You simply can't take your eyes off him, particularly during the flashback scene where George learns of his partner's death on the telephone. The voice on the other end (one of Jim's cousins) matter-of-factly tells him that Jim, and their dogs, were killed in an accident while visiting family. Jim's parents do not know that the cousin has made the call; if it were up to them, George would not be informed. And, most heartbreakingly, George's wish to attend the funeral is rebuffed, as it is for "family only." Anyone, of any sexual persuasion, who has ever loved and lost and grieved can identify with George.

The art design, the kitschy '60s sets, the small details and nuances of behavior and physical appearance, are all so memorable, yet so fleeting and seamless that I found so much new in the second screening that I hadn't noticed in the first. There are some priceless scenes of the fastidious George interacting with neighborhood children (one precocious little girl tells him that her dad says George is "light in your loafers, but you don't even wear loafers.") Homosexuality, in the early 60's, is something that people know about, but certainly don't talk about overtly. George is an outsider in his world, and an outsider who is alone, now that Jim is gone.

He does have a female friend, fellow British expat Charlotte ("Charley"), brilliantly played by Julianne Moore. She is a divorcee who drinks too much, laughs too loudly, dresses flamboyantly and carries a torch for George, based on a long-ago experimental fling. George enjoys her company - one senses she is the only friend he has who knows what he is - and is firm but kind in putting off her advances. Their scene together - dancing and cavorting - is one of the film's highlights.

Impassive on the outside, heart breaking on the inside, George goes about the business of his day, planning for it to be his last. He thinks that no possibility of joy remains for him, and it is time to check out. Throughout the film we see him making serio-comic preparations for his suicide, getting his affairs in order, laying out his clothing (with a note next to his tie stating that it should be tied in a Windsor knot - Windsor being underlined. Bravo, Tom Ford!)

George connects with two others during the course of the day - a Latino James Dean-wannabe hustler (in a scene more significant for what doesn't happen than for what does) and a flirtatious male student from one of his classes (played by Nic Hoult). The encounter with the student leads to a late-night frolic in the surf, tying in with the scene that plays over the opening credits. This opens George to the possibility of happiness, making the film's climax even more moving.

This is a film you will want to see more than once. I've already seen it twice, and I wish I could see it again. Colin Firth is simply magnificent - it is the role of a lifetime for him. All the Oscar talk is richly deserved, and I hope it comes to fruition.

For its near perfection, I give this film 5 shovels.

A Single Man Venice Ovation

Staff Writer: Ann Stieglitz

The audience stood and clapped for ten minutes at the end of Tom Ford´s first film, A Single Man, at the Venice Film Festival. This reaction augured well for a prize, and an award was duly given to Colin Firth, for Best Actor. The award was highly deserved, not only for his performance in this film, but for a string of moving and insightful performances, from Easy Virtue, Genova and Dorian Gray.

Colin Firth could not have been more delighted as evidenced from his speech, where he thanked Italy for giving him his wife, his children and this prize, but also because this award was a wonderful birthday present, his 49^th birthday having been celebrated the day before.

I wonder, too, did he know, that internet fans had collected a substantial sum for Oxfam America, of which he is an ambassador (actually, of Oxfam as a whole), in honour of his 49^th birthday? All around, we can only wish him the best, and hope that he is nominated for both a BAFTA and an Oscar – it would be high time!

For more information about Colin Firth, please visit our Aft Tracker page.