A terrible accident on the road claims innocent lives, and a grief-stricken community tries to fine someone or something to blame.
In the case of “The Sweet Hereafter,” which opened the Toronto International Film Festival Thursday night, the tragedy is an icy crash that kills a bus load of children on their way to school. But when introducing the movie, Canadian director Atom Egoyan (“Exotica”) couldn’t help but note the screening’s bad timing between a beloved princess’ shocking death and her funeral.
“There’s an immediate need to understand how it happened, an immediate need to assign blame,” Egoyan said the following day. His movie, slated to open in Chicago in December, illustrates these dynamics with sympathy and an quiet beauty. It focuses on an out-of-town lawyer (Ian Holm) who appeals to the parents’ anger while a teen injured in the crash (Sarah Polley) tries to find a path to serenity.
Although North America’s premier film festival hasn’t been completely preoccupied with Princess Diana’s death, the subject kept coming up over the 10-day event’s opening weekend. Danny DeVito, who plays a 1950s tabloid journalism pioneer in “L.A. Confidential,” was asked at a press conference Friday to place his character in the context of those who staked out the princess.
“This is a common occurrence for us, to be chased by a certain element in the press,” DeVito said. “It’s horrifying when you’re with your kids and you’re going somewhere and people are running after you, sometimes pulling you or pushing you.”
For the record, the fellow who asked that question was in the hotel’s lobby just an hour earlier handing black-and-while glossies of the “L.A. Confidential” stars.
“L. A. Confidential,” was the big movie of the festival’s early going, as it was at Cannes and probably will be when it opens nationwide later this month. Based on James Ellroy’s novel and directed by Curtis Hanson, (“The River Wild”), it’s a sprawling, twisting, terrifically entertaining tale of corruption and double-crosses among 1950s Los Angeles police officers, particularly those played by Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe and Guy Pearce.
Other festival highlights included Robin Wright Penn’s glowing performance as a woman who can’t deny her love toward an abusive ex-boyfriend in Erin Dignam’s “Loved”; Samuel L. Jackson’s typically layered work in Kasi Lemmons’ impressive though sometimes predictable directorial debut, the family drama “Eve’s Bayou”; director John Sayles’ chutzpah in filming his otherwise-modest “Men With Guns” in Spanish; and the basic goods-delivering quality of two big-studio entries: Andrew Niccol’s futuristic “Gattaca” and Lee Tamahori’s adventure thriller “The Edge,” written by David Mamet.
