tiff 2007

So the hubby and I had tickets to both Rendition and Michael Clayton at the Toronto International Film Festival on Friday, September 7. Both were ‘Gala’ films which means there was many a star sighting.

Rendition is a movie about a man who is taken from an American airport for suspected terrorist ties and sent to a country where they have more ‘creative’ ways of making people talk. The movie centres around his story and that of his pregnant wife, with a number of off-shoots. It stars Reese Witherspoon, Jake Gyllenhal, Peter Saarsgard (!!!), Alan Arkin, and Meryl Streep. There were a few ‘no name’ actors who did excellent work in this movie too. They’re unlikely to be ‘no names’ for long. The movie was great. It was directed by Gavin Hood (Tsotsi, and if you don’t know, look it up) who is South African. He has a personal mandate to make movies that push people to think about the state of the world and the consequences of their actions, big and little, both good and bad. Jake, Peter, Reese, the No Names, and Gavin all showed up last night for it’s WORLD PREMIERE (had no idea at the time…).

I couldn’t get any of them to stop and sign for me except Gavin Hood. Since I could really care less about the stars and am mostly there to celebrate film making, I wanted his autograph and he obliged (will attempt to post pics later… ). Actually he seemed really surprised that a) I knew who he was and b) I wanted him to sign something. He’s very humble and just so glad to be able to tell his stories on a lager scale, now that he’s an Oscar winner. Jake is pretty in person, taller than you would imagine though. Peter is exactly like he seems on screen, a good guy who just likes to do his job, sad I couldn’t get him to stop. Reese is — and I hate to say this — stunningly beautiful in person. Even though she was not stopping to sign she — again I hate myself for this — said ‘Oh. I’m so sorry I can’t stop. Thank you though!’ as she went through the line. Not as good a turn out as I’d hoped. I really wanted some Meryl, but hey…. I’m sure she’s got better things to do. Like pick out shoes that even lesbians won’t wear. Moving on.

Michael Clayton is a movie about a lawyer (George Clooney in the title role) who is a ‘fixer’ for his law firm. By ‘fixer’ I mean that when there’s a problem (like a client getting into a hit-and-run) he goes in and ‘fixes’ it. Sometimes that means putting someone back on their meds, sometimes it means calling the right lawyer to see the issue through to its end. The movie deals specifically with the meltdown of the firm’s major litigator on the largest class action suit the world has seen in a long, long time. Clayton is called in to start fixing the meltdown when he discovers that there may be more going on that what’s on the surface and it’s possible that the idea of defending a major chemical company that knew it was killing people with its products has driven a man insane.

This is a really, really good movie. Rendition has its place. It’s topical, it makes you think, it has some hauntingly beautiful moments, but this was the big winner of the evening. Starring along side George was Tilda Swinton (Constantine, The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe), Sydney Pollock and Tom Wilkinson. It was directed by Tony Gilroy, who also wrote it. Many of you will know his previous work as the writer of the Bourne series (Identity, Supremacy, Ultimatum). We didn’t do the pandemonium downstairs because we instead opted to get good seats. Which we did, we just didn’t get very good seat-mates, but hey, it was all good. George came out and did a little speech (which, yes, we captured on video) and that was as close to him as we got. I can not emphasize enough that seeing this man in person is exactly the same as seeing him in the movies. He’s a brilliant actor, director and producer. He also writes occasionally (pardon my Ocean’s Eleven reference… I really just can’t help myself). He’s humble, straight up and looks amazing in a suit. We did, however, refrain from yelling ‘BATMAN!’ when he was speaking. Hee. Especially since he was talking about how movies like ‘this’ can’t get made and seen without festivals like TIFF and that he’s grateful. Tony Gilroy kept saying that this movie couldn’t have been made without the ‘protection’ of Mr. Clooney there, so it leads me to believe that Georgie has positoined himself as a major player. Well played, Mr. Wayne, well played indeed…..

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