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Moving 'Body of War'; Lumet's wicked 'Devil'

By Lori Hoffman

Add Comment | Comments: 0 | Posted Jul. 15, 2009

Body of War

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TORONTO, ONTARIO--My final movie at the 32nd Toronto International Film Festival was the best of the fest, in both content and execution. Body of War, co-directed by talk show icon Phil Donahue and veteran documentary filmmaker Ellen Spiro is a film that captures the agony of the 5 percent of our nation being asked to sacrifice the most -- the soldiers in battle and their families.

The film is about Tomas Young, now 25, who signed up for duty on Sept. 13, 2001, after seeing George Bush standing on the rubble of the World Trade Center. He expected to go to Afghanistan, but wound up in Iraq in an open truck without armor plating. Five days into his tour of duty he was shot and paralyzed from the shoulders down.

Body of War shows us his reality -- how his marriage is little more than a nurse treating a patient, how he becomes an anti-war spokesman, and a presentation of the graphic details of what it really means to be paralyzed. It had me in tears, in part because I have a neighbor whose son has had two tours of duty, one in Afghanistan and one in Iraq. He is now going back to war for a third time. The film was embraced by audiences at the Festival and named a runner-up in the People's Choice Award, voted on by the public.

Other movies that impressed in the second half of the festival included 83-year-old director Sidney Lumet's Before The Devil Knows Your Dead about a family so filled with hate and rancor, the term dysfunction can't even begin to describe their mindset. (Visit www.atlanticcityweekly.com/audio to hear Lumet respond to questions during a Q&A session at the festival.) A splendid cast -- Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Albert Finney, Marisa Tomei -- unleash their weakness and wickedness with only a hint of regret, their actions fueled by a desperation that has no boundaries.

Jonathan Demme's fine documentary about former president Jimmy Carter, Man From Plains is another engaging film. Michael Douglas' performance as a mentally ill father in King of California is equaled by Evan Rachel Wood as his responsible 17-year-old daughter in this offbeat comedy drama, due for release in Philadelphia Sept. 28.

In summation, of the 28 films viewed at the festival, the ones worth checking out as they are released include those listed above plus Michael Clayton, Honeydripper, No Country For Old Men, Rendition, Juno, Then She Found Me, The Jane Austen Book Club, Bill, The Girl In The Park, Brick Lane and Cleaner.

Festival Quotables

Jodie Foster: "The last 10 years I've realized that I'm only really happy when I work with directors I admire and respect. Isn't it crazy that it took me 40 years to figure that out?"

George Clooney: "There is no competition with my friends ever [over roles or performances]. You try not to compete in art. There is competition with Matt Damon though. I'd like to kick his ass."

Jude Law: "He doesn't wield his iconic status. He's very friendly, very funny. There were one or two fleeting moments where I suddenly realized who I was acting with, and it took me out of the moment. [Director Kenneth Branaugh] found me in the corner giggling and asked, 'What?' and I said, 'It's Michael Caine. It's someone you grew up watching. He's a legend.'"

Michael Caine: "I don't want to watch a film I've seen before, especially not ones with me in it. I have 87 movies. I can't sit there every evening watching old movies of my own. I know who did it in all of them."

Sidney Lumet: "I think this generation of actors is enormously caring about their work. You'll have a George Clooney doing Oceans 11, 12, 13, then taking no salary and doing Syriana. Brad Pitt, I don't know if he is the biggest male star, but he's up there. [Babel] is one hell of a movie. It took enormous courage to do it ... I think it's very encouraging. They live in a commercial world but there is also such a thing as their own satisfaction and they are going to try and keep the two in balance."

A Lite Romance

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