TORONTO FILM FESTIVAL, Fourth Day, Part 1

CRACKS, Jordan Scott
UK.

There are a number of films this year set an all-girls schools. This is my second one and it is not quite as clearheaded as the first, An Education. Directed by Ridley Scott's daughter, it is set in the 1930s at a remote boarding school on an even more remote island. The school seems to draw its student body from families that want to park their daughters there and basically never have to deal with them at all.

The girls are all in the thrall of the pretentious, possessive and voluptuous teacher, Miss G, played by Eva Green. She weaves dramatic accounts of her imagined past and leads the girls in adventures, literary and aquatic, the latter including diving practice and moonlight skinny dips.

Into this ordered if quirky universe comes a new girl, a Spaniard who may be a refugee from the Spanish Civil War (she is an aristocrat). She throws a wrench into Miss G's plans, at first by recognizing the literary sources of Miss G's supposedly personal history, and then by arousing Miss G's sexual ardor.

It is beautifully shot (in Ireland) and has some fine performances, especially by Juno Temple as the student "captain" whose allegiances are constantly being jerked around. But the film is unnecessarily melodramatic and overheated, best exemplified by Green's intense, twitchy performance. Its worst sin, though, is how blatantly derivative it is of so many sources -- The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and Lord of the Flies most of all, but at various times, The Children's Hour, Jane Eyre, and Zero for Conduct. It's a film full of promise that is misdelivered.

I rate this B.



THE TROTSKY, directed by Jacob Tierney
Canada

I think this maybe the one, the breakthrough, the discovery. It's a Canadian comedy, which is sometimes a dangerous ground, eh? This one, however, has a great premise, a sure-handed directorial style and some fine performances, anchored by a memorable turn in the title role by Jay Baruchel. Physically and emotionally Baruchel becomes a gawky, intense, more than a little demented high school student who believes that he is the reincarnation of Leon Trotsky. He sets out to re-create Trotsky's life, from fomenting revolution to getting an ice pick in his head. He starts the revolution at his father's factory, until he is exiled from there and then carries the flame of revolution to his high school. There he gathers puzzled support from the apathetic student body and encounters an opposing force in the person of the rigid principal and his "demonic concubine" vice principal.

This is a wonderfully inventive and intelligent comedy, but that very intelligence may hold it back from the widespread popularity it deserves. It's laugh-out-loud funny, and yet many of those laughs spring from an awareness of history and culture that may not be common enough for the film to appeal widely. That would be a shame.

All the other performances fit the mood and the moment ideally, especially Saul Rubinek as Leon's unaccepting father, and Colm Feore as the school principal. There are some great Russian references, from the music and the graphics to the Potemkin baby carriage scene.

This is, paradoxically, a high school comedy for sophisticated adults, and as such it may fall between those two stools. Its quirky sensibility reminded me of Juno, but this one will be harder to market. If only Oprah had come to this screening.... right.

Original, funny, fast-paced, intelligent, it's an easy A. You shouldn't miss it, that is, if you ever get the chance to see it.



MAO'S LAST DANCER, directed by Bruce Beresford
Australia

Biopics these days present great opportunities and great limitations. In the old days, they could invent whatever they wanted dramatically as long as they adhered to a few well-known facts. Today, they need some unusual hook (A Beautiful Mind) or fragmented structure (Creation) to limn a life. Bruce Beresford is a solid, straightforward filmmaker, and that is the way he tells this story.

And a fascinating story it is: a young boy is plucked from his rural Chinese village to attend ballet school in Beijing in the early 1970s; at first he fails, then pushes himself, excels, is chosen to attend a summer program at the Houston Ballet, decides to stay in the US, defects through a hasty marriage, creates an international incident, subjects his family to punishment, and ultimately reunites with them. I'm out of breath just writing about it.

The best parts are those set in the Shandong province of China. These early scenes are yet another window into a distant culture. Given the current thaw in East-West relations, I'm guessing that these scenes were shot in Shandong, or somewhere very close to it. That gives these scenes an added depth. Also, the depictions of the Cultural Revolution, politically correct Chinese ballet, and the post-Mao trials are riveting.

And then there's Houston, not as riveting as Shandong. The scenes there have a sense of artificiality, especially in contrast to those set in Shandong. Bruce Greenwood, usually cast as cops and doctors and average guys, transforms himself physically into a believable ballet master, but the rest of the Houston cast is astonishingly low budget -- false, stagy, obvious. This is especially surprising in a Beresford film. Chi Cao as Li Cunxin is impressively airborne in the dances, but flat-footed as an actor. The clichéd Chinese immigrant material doesn't help him. The other Chinese actors are much more effective, even though they too delve into numerous ethnic clichés.

The emotional payoff is telegraphed well ahead of its arrival on the screen and is not staged for its maximum teary potential.

A curious fizzle, I rate this a B-.