Northern overexposure

To paraphrase Yogi Berra, Toronto International Film Festival press conferences are so crowded, nobody goes there anymore. I don't — why bother pressing through an overflow crowd and straining to hear inane questions drowned out by the click of camera shutters? My favorite, a couple of years back: A journalist lamely asked Salma Hayek, in town to promote "Frida," whether wearing the famous Frida Kahlo unibrow made her feel smarter. Her quick reply: "No, but maybe it would work for you."

You can get a play-by-play of the conferences in any Toronto paper, and read about how Jodie Foster dazzled the press by answering questions from French-Canadian journalists in perfect French; how Sean Penn was his usual surly self (at least he didn't smoke at the microphone this year); how George Clooney made Brad Pitt jokes; and how Jennifer Garner got ignored in favor of her more chatty if less famous "Juno" co-star Jason Bateman, who told the assembled crowd where babies come from. More fun than being there, by a mile.

Meanwhile, word is that Stuart Townsend's "Battle in Seattle," a drama about the WTO riots starring Charlize Theron, is closing in on a distribution deal. I haven't seen the movie, but it has generally good buzz, though some Seattleites have complained to me that too often the movie's clearly taking place in Vancouver. Not that that's a problem for most markets — in L.A., the Northwest all looks the same.

Though several days remain in the festival, things are clearly winding down — the snores I heard in a morning press screening of "Sleuth" weren't entirely due to the movie. Not that Kenneth Branagh's remake of the 1972 movie based on Anthony Shaffer's play is any great shakes. Michael Caine (who also starred in the earlier movie) and Jude Law play a couple of guys dueling over a woman, engaging in all sorts of mind games and machinations as a long night becomes day. Branagh gives it a stark, modern look with pretentious camera angles, screenwriter Harold Pinter adds plenty of Pinter pauses, and the actors huff and puff but never blow us away. It all feels more like an experiment in style than a movie; when it's over, you wonder what the point was.

And I found myself at the Varsity snack counter late at night, after realizing that I never had dinner, deciding that apple juice, a banana and M&Ms would make a perfectly reasonable and sort of balanced meal. Maybe it's time to go home.

Moira Macdonald: 206-464-2725 or mmacdonald@seattletimes.com