TIFF Report!
I return, if not triumphant, at least satisfied.
Firstly: meeting the fangirls was awesome. scriggle, primroseburrows and nos4a2no9 are all lovely ladies that I was very pleased to meet. Unfortunately Nos was quite busy and didn't have a lot of time to hang around in Toronto with us. More unfortunately, this put me in the position of being the person doing a lot of the navigation, which led the conclusion that I have Issues dealing with East-West streets. Much aimless wandering occurred, which contributed to my extremely sore feet.
Not having waded up from skip=eleventy in my flist (and as a n00b I still have a small flist, but still) I don't know if no4a2no9 has reported already, but there was No Callum at the Wednesday screening of Normal. This was WOE mildly disappointing. Carl Bessai and Kevin Zegers were there, and they did a fairly enlightening--if short--Q&A session at the end of the screening. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Due to the aforementioned problems with East-West streets, we got going the wrong way up Richmond Street for a few minutes before I managed to grab a clue. We got to Normal just exactly on time, barely a minute to spare.
It was good, passable. Not stellar, mind you, but it certainly bears a lot of rewatching. Well acted, well filmed, and as scriggle said, certainly the best movie Callum's been in since Wilby. He had a LARGE part. There was much Callum, and before I get into the thinky can I just splash over into the shallow end for a moment to say: DAAAAAAAAAAAMN. He is looking so fucking good to me in this film. This is known now, after all the Getty and Wire promos appeared, but seeing him on the big screen is something else. Rawr.
*cough* Okay, so. The film. I'll try not to be all spoilery in this part. The whole cast gets mad kudos from me. They did a great job with a lot of heavy subject matter. Carrie-Anne did a little nibbling on the scenery occasionally, but there was lot of liiiiiiiingering attention on her, so I kind of forgive her. You have to fill all the space with something. Kevin was also good; he wears angry and sullen very well, without making it seem whiny. Tygh Runyan is very credible in what can be a very difficult kind of role. Support was solid, and Britt Irvin reminds me of Sarah Polley.
I don't need to tell you that Callum was fantastic, because you know he was. This role as Walt demanded so much range from him, and of course I'm biased, but I didn't notice a single wrong note from him. He's terribly good.
The weaknesses in the film were contained in the narrative and the occasionally weak characterisation. Bessai was very stuck on his grief/melancholy theme I think, and whether some of the . . . opacity (if that's what I want) of the characters is intentional or not, it stopped me from becoming invested in the story. I'm a crier by nature; Normal did not inspire a single tear from me. A few winces though.
Here comes the spoilery (and probably incoherency, for I am tired):
. . . .
. . .
Ready?
I'm not going to recap the plot of Normal here, because nos4a2no9 has already done so admirably. If you haven't read that, you should.
Some style things I noticed:
I was immediately struck by A) the Shakycam that Nos warned us about, and B) the glut of oddly-framed closeups. Strange angles, a lot of heads cut off, and as primroseburrows pointed out later, a lot of shots of reflections and mirrors. In the Q&A Carl Bessai explained the filming style by staying he wanted it to look somewhat like a documentary, to give it "truthfulness," which was a choice that satisfied me once it was explained.
I noticed also that during the film there was a lot of sharp juxtaposition of moods between scenes. For example, he cut from Dennis (Walt's autistic brother) having mild-to-serious episodes of anxiety to a scene of Dale (the father of the dead son) discussing the merits of barbecues, or to a calm scene of Jordie (Kevin Zegers) throwing rocks on a beach. These contrasts were completely dropped at the climax of the film, which cuts back and forth rapidly between Catherine physically attacking Walt when he comes to visit, and Jordie and Elise's fight with their respective father/husband when he discovers they've been having an affair. I'm not really sure if it's adds anything, or what the intent was (I should have asked) but it was interesting to note.
Plot/Character things:
Jordie and Elise had a lot of cliched romance-novel animosity in the beginning of the film, but this impression may owe something to the fact that the affair was seen in the trailer and I was spoiled for it. Kevin acted it well, I thought, since he didn't come off as an emo adolescent, which would have been an easy pit to fall in. But neither of the actors were helped by the stilted dialogue. A lot of "don't pretend you're my mother" sort of thing.
Callum had a good scene where he was attempting to seek therapy with a psychologist/psychiatrist who turns out to be Jordie's father. His monologue about the night of the car crash was great, full of emotion and those subtle little expressions he has a knack for. However, that early in the film the story fell flat to me. I wasn't invested at that point. (And never really would be, as it turned out.)
There were some wrong notes in the screenplay, or some transition was cut or something. The sex scenes (there were two: Walt and Sherri, and the Jordie/Elise/dad thing of Ewwwww) were somewhat unnecessary. Certainly the scene with Walt and Sherri (while rather amusing and lose the shirt, Callum!) could have been cut and just implied. There was a good "morning after" scene with ice cream and Sherri's extreme cluelessness and that was fine without showing us what preceded it (Shirt. Seriously. WTF). The first hookup could have been like that too--it was only glaringly obvious where they were headed. The affair between Jordie and his stepmother probably needed some on-screen action show-and-tell, but it went on too long and the sound was too much. All the heavy breathing threw me right off. Plus the dad coming along right after (literally) was just squicky.
There were little spots of humour between Jordie and his boss and some others that I thought did not belong at all. It's film about gnawing grief and endless melancholy. The random quips disagreed with me, mild as they were The boss at the pizza place where Jordie works was a bit too much of a caricature in a film full of unhappy and seething characters.
Now, my biggest beef: Catherine goes to talk to Jordie, who blames himself entirely for the joyriding in the stolen car that leads to Nicky's death. Fine. But as Catherine is hearing this she suddenly does a weird one-eighty and confesses that she knew here son was not perfect (compared to how she was angsting him into sainthood before) and that "you can't go back." This! From Captain No-Progress herself! Totally wrong, to me. She was portrayed as so deranged by her grief in the first part that I just do not believe she could reach that sort of thing on her own permanently. Moments of clarity about how she's neglecting her living son is one thing, but her sudden empowerment to burn her dead son's things (the mental instability did not disappear entirely) and leave her husband just did not work for me. She was sobbing into her son's shirts probably every day, in the lowest of depressions--one conversation didn't seem sufficient to change herdirection that much.
Everyone else's resolution was okay, I thought. All but Elise's were hopeful (she stayed with her cold, abusive husband and as as as we know remained a trophy wife unless he divorced her). Jordie finally escapes his father's house and goes with Melissa (Nicky's former girlfriend, played by Irvin) who is utterly not guilty about barely missing Nicky and can probably teach Jordie something about giving himself a break. Dennis finally makes it out of his apartment and goes on a date, jump started by the absence of his overinvolved brother (this contrasts with Walt's story about the night of the accident, where his lateness in getting to Dennis was one of the steps leading to the crash). Walt's resolution is the vaguest--his wife has left him, his weathergirl/student/clueless diversion Sherri is gone and no good for him anyhow, and he can't find his brother . . . and yet he smiles in the end. Carl Bessai commented on this, saying they left it open. Maybe Walt, beaten down to his lowest point, can now start building back up. Except for Catherine, I liked that it wasn't all neatly tied up.
Also: someone in the audience asked Carl about his choice to leave Nicky out of the film (there were no flashbacks). Or I think it was asked, or maybe he brought it up? Anyhow, I liked the decision. You just got this ghost of a memory of Nicky, barely a sketch of him, and the hole in the family's life was palpable. It was a good call.
Random:
Kevin Zegers talked a little about the state of Acting in Canada, and whether or not her felt and patriotic obligation to make film here etc. (He doesn't). He didn't mention our mutual hometown, so I didn't get to yell out anything and make an arse of myself. *g*
Oh, boy. That's enough out of me for a while. I can cover Silk (much less long-winded, I assure you), more of the Toronto experience, my cousin's awesomeness, and the few pictures I took tomorrow. Excuse any typos, repetition, and comma-sprees I may have left in here. And for anything that's confusing. If I failed to explain some plot thing, you may certainly point it out and I'll try not to be all vague. Right now I'm for bed.
Firstly: meeting the fangirls was awesome. scriggle, primroseburrows and nos4a2no9 are all lovely ladies that I was very pleased to meet. Unfortunately Nos was quite busy and didn't have a lot of time to hang around in Toronto with us. More unfortunately, this put me in the position of being the person doing a lot of the navigation, which led the conclusion that I have Issues dealing with East-West streets. Much aimless wandering occurred, which contributed to my extremely sore feet.
Not having waded up from skip=eleventy in my flist (and as a n00b I still have a small flist, but still) I don't know if no4a2no9 has reported already, but there was No Callum at the Wednesday screening of Normal. This was WOE mildly disappointing. Carl Bessai and Kevin Zegers were there, and they did a fairly enlightening--if short--Q&A session at the end of the screening. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Due to the aforementioned problems with East-West streets, we got going the wrong way up Richmond Street for a few minutes before I managed to grab a clue. We got to Normal just exactly on time, barely a minute to spare.
It was good, passable. Not stellar, mind you, but it certainly bears a lot of rewatching. Well acted, well filmed, and as scriggle said, certainly the best movie Callum's been in since Wilby. He had a LARGE part. There was much Callum, and before I get into the thinky can I just splash over into the shallow end for a moment to say: DAAAAAAAAAAAMN. He is looking so fucking good to me in this film. This is known now, after all the Getty and Wire promos appeared, but seeing him on the big screen is something else. Rawr.
*cough* Okay, so. The film. I'll try not to be all spoilery in this part. The whole cast gets mad kudos from me. They did a great job with a lot of heavy subject matter. Carrie-Anne did a little nibbling on the scenery occasionally, but there was lot of liiiiiiiingering attention on her, so I kind of forgive her. You have to fill all the space with something. Kevin was also good; he wears angry and sullen very well, without making it seem whiny. Tygh Runyan is very credible in what can be a very difficult kind of role. Support was solid, and Britt Irvin reminds me of Sarah Polley.
I don't need to tell you that Callum was fantastic, because you know he was. This role as Walt demanded so much range from him, and of course I'm biased, but I didn't notice a single wrong note from him. He's terribly good.
The weaknesses in the film were contained in the narrative and the occasionally weak characterisation. Bessai was very stuck on his grief/melancholy theme I think, and whether some of the . . . opacity (if that's what I want) of the characters is intentional or not, it stopped me from becoming invested in the story. I'm a crier by nature; Normal did not inspire a single tear from me. A few winces though.
Here comes the spoilery (and probably incoherency, for I am tired):
. . . .
. . .
Ready?
I'm not going to recap the plot of Normal here, because nos4a2no9 has already done so admirably. If you haven't read that, you should.
Some style things I noticed:
I was immediately struck by A) the Shakycam that Nos warned us about, and B) the glut of oddly-framed closeups. Strange angles, a lot of heads cut off, and as primroseburrows pointed out later, a lot of shots of reflections and mirrors. In the Q&A Carl Bessai explained the filming style by staying he wanted it to look somewhat like a documentary, to give it "truthfulness," which was a choice that satisfied me once it was explained.
I noticed also that during the film there was a lot of sharp juxtaposition of moods between scenes. For example, he cut from Dennis (Walt's autistic brother) having mild-to-serious episodes of anxiety to a scene of Dale (the father of the dead son) discussing the merits of barbecues, or to a calm scene of Jordie (Kevin Zegers) throwing rocks on a beach. These contrasts were completely dropped at the climax of the film, which cuts back and forth rapidly between Catherine physically attacking Walt when he comes to visit, and Jordie and Elise's fight with their respective father/husband when he discovers they've been having an affair. I'm not really sure if it's adds anything, or what the intent was (I should have asked) but it was interesting to note.
Plot/Character things:
Jordie and Elise had a lot of cliched romance-novel animosity in the beginning of the film, but this impression may owe something to the fact that the affair was seen in the trailer and I was spoiled for it. Kevin acted it well, I thought, since he didn't come off as an emo adolescent, which would have been an easy pit to fall in. But neither of the actors were helped by the stilted dialogue. A lot of "don't pretend you're my mother" sort of thing.
Callum had a good scene where he was attempting to seek therapy with a psychologist/psychiatrist who turns out to be Jordie's father. His monologue about the night of the car crash was great, full of emotion and those subtle little expressions he has a knack for. However, that early in the film the story fell flat to me. I wasn't invested at that point. (And never really would be, as it turned out.)
There were some wrong notes in the screenplay, or some transition was cut or something. The sex scenes (there were two: Walt and Sherri, and the Jordie/Elise/dad thing of Ewwwww) were somewhat unnecessary. Certainly the scene with Walt and Sherri (while rather amusing and lose the shirt, Callum!) could have been cut and just implied. There was a good "morning after" scene with ice cream and Sherri's extreme cluelessness and that was fine without showing us what preceded it (Shirt. Seriously. WTF). The first hookup could have been like that too--it was only glaringly obvious where they were headed. The affair between Jordie and his stepmother probably needed some on-screen action show-and-tell, but it went on too long and the sound was too much. All the heavy breathing threw me right off. Plus the dad coming along right after (literally) was just squicky.
There were little spots of humour between Jordie and his boss and some others that I thought did not belong at all. It's film about gnawing grief and endless melancholy. The random quips disagreed with me, mild as they were The boss at the pizza place where Jordie works was a bit too much of a caricature in a film full of unhappy and seething characters.
Now, my biggest beef: Catherine goes to talk to Jordie, who blames himself entirely for the joyriding in the stolen car that leads to Nicky's death. Fine. But as Catherine is hearing this she suddenly does a weird one-eighty and confesses that she knew here son was not perfect (compared to how she was angsting him into sainthood before) and that "you can't go back." This! From Captain No-Progress herself! Totally wrong, to me. She was portrayed as so deranged by her grief in the first part that I just do not believe she could reach that sort of thing on her own permanently. Moments of clarity about how she's neglecting her living son is one thing, but her sudden empowerment to burn her dead son's things (the mental instability did not disappear entirely) and leave her husband just did not work for me. She was sobbing into her son's shirts probably every day, in the lowest of depressions--one conversation didn't seem sufficient to change herdirection that much.
Everyone else's resolution was okay, I thought. All but Elise's were hopeful (she stayed with her cold, abusive husband and as as as we know remained a trophy wife unless he divorced her). Jordie finally escapes his father's house and goes with Melissa (Nicky's former girlfriend, played by Irvin) who is utterly not guilty about barely missing Nicky and can probably teach Jordie something about giving himself a break. Dennis finally makes it out of his apartment and goes on a date, jump started by the absence of his overinvolved brother (this contrasts with Walt's story about the night of the accident, where his lateness in getting to Dennis was one of the steps leading to the crash). Walt's resolution is the vaguest--his wife has left him, his weathergirl/student/clueless diversion Sherri is gone and no good for him anyhow, and he can't find his brother . . . and yet he smiles in the end. Carl Bessai commented on this, saying they left it open. Maybe Walt, beaten down to his lowest point, can now start building back up. Except for Catherine, I liked that it wasn't all neatly tied up.
Also: someone in the audience asked Carl about his choice to leave Nicky out of the film (there were no flashbacks). Or I think it was asked, or maybe he brought it up? Anyhow, I liked the decision. You just got this ghost of a memory of Nicky, barely a sketch of him, and the hole in the family's life was palpable. It was a good call.
Random:
Kevin Zegers talked a little about the state of Acting in Canada, and whether or not her felt and patriotic obligation to make film here etc. (He doesn't). He didn't mention our mutual hometown, so I didn't get to yell out anything and make an arse of myself. *g*
Oh, boy. That's enough out of me for a while. I can cover Silk (much less long-winded, I assure you), more of the Toronto experience, my cousin's awesomeness, and the few pictures I took tomorrow. Excuse any typos, repetition, and comma-sprees I may have left in here. And for anything that's confusing. If I failed to explain some plot thing, you may certainly point it out and I'll try not to be all vague. Right now I'm for bed.