Tag: mads mikkelsen

Photo by Let Ideas Compete, used under Creative Commons license

TIFF reviews: The Hunt, Sightseers

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

I must say, it feels weird to have wrapped up our 2010 TIFF on Tuesday, just five days after it opened and three days after our first screening. It was a strategic move, of course, and a wise one, but I’m having trouble processing all the #TIFF12 tweets when — in my mind — it finished days ago.

4. The Hunt

There was a lot of buzz around The Hunt (tiff) following Mads Mikkelsen’s best actor award at Cannes. For the most part I’d say the film lived up to it. Mikkelsen was the best part about it, though I found all the others actors — especially the marvellous young Annika Wedderkopp — to be outstanding as well. The film was rather emotionally manipulative, but in this case I think that wasn’t without a purpose…there’s never any ambiguity about Mikkelsen’s character’s innocence — and I think the raw emotion was meant to drive the viewer toward feelings of empathy rather than suspicion.

Mikkelsen, writer Tobias Lindholm, and director/co-writer Thomas Vinterberg stuck around for a long, honest Q&A after the film. There was a slight air of anti-Americanism in their comments, but only as it related to American filmmaking. Methinks an American studio has pissed off one of Mikkelsen or Vinterberg in the past.

Whatever the studio issues, this was the (co-) top film of the festival for me: 8/10.

5. Sightseers

Sightseers (tiff) made it into our schedule pretty much on the strength of the one-line description: “a frumpy Bonnie & Clyde”. There was no way to avoid it after that.

It was a dark, dark, dark comedy. Kind of a murderous love story set against stunning English vistas, if that makes any sense.

Also, the film was followed by one of the best Q&A’s we’ve ever seen…an even mix of cheeky, hilarious questions and serious film backstory/genesis questions. Which were, in turn, met with consistently hilarious responses from director Ben Wheatly and actress Alice Lowe, who was a revelation. I would have stayed there and listened to them answer questions for another hours. Stupid next movie.

This was, then, the other top film of the festival for me: 8/10.

.:.

Photo by Let Ideas Compete, used under Creative Commons license

Valhalla Rising

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Valhalla Rising (tiff | imdb) was our third film, and first of the year back at our old familiar haunt: the Ryerson theatre. This film didn’t make the first draft of our schedule, but after hearing some early buzz and watching the trailer again, we swapped it in. I mean, c’mon…the awesome Mads Mikkelsen playing a savage mute warrior named One Eye who goes off to fight in the crusades, and allegories of religious warfare ensue? Oh, I was there. I was there yesterday.

Unfortunately it didn’t quite live up to my expectations. Or it did at first, but then lost them. It started off with a…well, not a bang so much as the thud of rock hitting a skull. Incredibly violent at the beginning and for various bursts throughout, but the bulk of the film plodded along to the point of tedium, beautifully shot though the tedium may have been.

It’s weird…I liked it, but I would have liked it so much more if they could have found some pace.

C+ B+

[UPDATE] The more I think about this film the more I like it. The images from the ‘plodding scenes’ keep racing through my head, even as I watched another movie, and since that was the only weakness I could think of, I’m upping my grade.