The Toronto Film Festival is winding down (at least for me). Twenty-five flicks in the books, with a few more to go. Emilio Estevez has brought his work-in-progress, Bobby, to the Fest. The film looks at the mundane lives a numerous characters at the Ambassador Hotel the day Robert Kennedy was shot. Unfortunately, mundane is the operational work. A bunch of big stars including Anthony Hopkins, Harry Belafonte, Demi Moore, Sharon Stone, Laurence Fishburne, William H. Macy, Lindsay Lohan, Elijah Wood and Martin Sheen (gotta give some work to the old man now that West Wing is history), interact in a soap opera plot. Without the payoff of the Kennedy assassination there would me no film, but it would have been better if we cared more for the characters before the big finish. However, it does have a few nice moments so perhaps this work-in-progresse can be reworked a bit before its scheduled release in November.

On a brighter note, Snowcake, a small scale drama with comedy that is a co-British/Canadian production, is my favorite film of the festival. Alan Rickman and Sigourney Weaver are both Oscar worthy in this drama about a man who finds his soul again through a series of unexpected events. Weaver plays an austistic woman who has suffered a devastating loss, but the nature of her condition doesn't allow her to express it in ways that are acceptable. Rickman's character, normally not the patient sort, finds a way to comfort her while healing his own soul. His healing also includes a relationship with Weaver's neighbor, played by Carrie Anne Moss. It is an exquisite small gem, just the type of movie one hopes to discover at a film festival.

Well, I have to sign off now if I want to make it to the Bobby press conference.

Later