Toronto fest: Seattle indie team in the fray for a film deal

TORONTO — At the Toronto International Film Festival, everyone's promoting something. Armies of publicists clutch their cellphones and clipboards, offering and denying interviews with equal chipperness.

Those embarking on a career in movies hang around the festival and its scene, hoping to make the right connections, such as the young actress I met at a public screening who wore what I can only describe as The Incredible Shrinking Dress. It was certainly one way to promote herself, and — who knows? — maybe it worked.

And then there are the independent filmmakers, who arrive at the festival ready to do business, hoping to raise awareness of their film and ultimately sign a deal with a distributor. One of these films is from our own backyard: "Outsourced," a comedy about a Seattle telemarketer who loses his job but agrees to travel to India to train his replacements. Director John Jeffcoat and screenwriter/executive producer George Wing, both Seattle-based, came to Toronto hoping to catch some buzz. Though the film was shot mostly in India, it was made with much Seattle talent on its production team (and, says Wing, a Pearl Jam song on the soundtrack).

I had to leave town last week before "Outsourced" screened, but caught up with Jeffcoat and Wing by telephone later as they relaxed during the film's second screening. Both sounded happy and a bit worn out.

"Three dinners in a row last night," said Wing. "We're exhausted, but it's been fantastic," said Jeffcoat, who confirmed that all three of the film's festival screenings had sold out, and that audience response to the first screening was warm and enthusiastic. No news to report yet in terms of a distribution deal, "but we're getting all the right kinds of interest from the acquisitions people here," Wing said.

Big deals announced included TIFF's most talked-about film: "Death of a President." The British film, which depicts the fictitious assassination of George W. Bush, was snapped up by U.S. distributor Newmarket (which released "The Passion of the Christ"). The Toronto Globe & Mail reported that a release is planned for November, timed to coincide with midterm elections.

Also acquired, by Lionsgate, was Canadian actress Sarah Polley's directing debut "Away from Her," about a long-married couple (Gordon Pinsent, Julie Christie) facing Alzheimer's disease. The distributor plans a spring opening.

The power of great acting

But the many screens of the Toronto festival offered a respite from business — and opportunities to ponder the power of great acting. Like Ed Harris in "Copying Beethoven," Agnieszka Holland's fact-meets-fiction tale of the great composer's relationship with a young music copyist (Diane Kruger) in 1824 Vienna.

At times, the story strains credibility, but Holland's dusty, sepia-toned light is exquisite, and Harris seizes his role and swaggers off with the movie. His wild-haired Beethoven is irascible, and awed by his own talents. "We musicians as are close to God as man can be."

"After the Wedding," a drama from Danish director Susanne Bier (a favorite at the Seattle International Film Festival for "Brothers" and "Open Hearts"), flirts dangerously with melodrama: A wealthy businessman (Rolf Lassgård) learns that an acquaintance (Mads Mikkelsen) is actually his daughter's father. Tears are shed and emotions rage, but Bier's fine cast keeps everything heartbreakingly real.

Anthony Minghella's "Breaking and Entering," the director's first original screenplay since 1991's "Truly, Madly, Deeply," is an elegant drama that never quite finds its footing. Jude Law plays a well-off landscape architect who becomes entangled with a Bosnian immigrant (the lovely Juliette Binoche) when her son burgles Law's office in a transitional London neighborhood.

The film explores issues of class and gentrification and is never less than thoughtful, but its path seems a bit well-lit, and its conclusion generous but underwhelming.

"Breaking and Entering" was one of a long string of angst-ridden films at the fest, and comedy did seem a bit scarce this year, with "Borat," "For Your Consideration," and "Stranger Than Fiction" among the few films eliciting laughter. Reviews were mixed on "Stranger Than Fiction," in which Will Ferrell plays an IRS auditor who suddenly begins to hear a narrative voice in his head. But I loved its warm-hearted, literate screenplay (by newcomer Zach Helm) and the loose, goofy ease of its cast, which also included Dustin Hoffman, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and a wonderfully rumpled Emma Thompson.

As usual, the festival ran with clockwork precision (the midnight-movie projector disaster of "Borat" notwithstanding), and I emerged from Toronto with a few new catchphrases.

One popped up just the other day, when getting into a special screening turned out to be as dramatic as anything on Toronto screens. Multiple lists were consulted, lines were formed, egos were ruffled and I began to wonder if anybody would enter this screening at all.

"A really serious list"

Finally, a publicist assured us that another publicist was heading over with "a really serious list" — as opposed, presumably, to the frivolous and devil-may-care lists that were currently being consulted. (I did get in — eventually.)

And as the festival closed, with the announcement Sunday that the drama "Bella," from director Alejandro Monteverde had won its coveted Audience Award, it seems fitting for me to close the book of TIFF likewise: with my own really serious list of movies I missed there but now can't wait to see. ("Outsourced," Ken Loach's "The Wind That Shakes the Barley" and Guillermo del Toro's "Pan's Labyrinth" are at the top.) It's a festival that gets you excited about the upcoming fall season, and about the joy of movies in general — and for that, it's well worth standing in a few lines.

Moira Macdonald: mmacdonald@seattletimes.com