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Toronto Film Festival 2015: Actors in 'The Danish Girl,' 'Legend' are better than their movies

Eddie Redmayne and Tom Hardy outshine their films with 'Danish' and 'Legend,' respectively, while other highlights included the movies 'Anomalisa,' a stop-motion animated film co-directed and written by Charlie Kaufman, and the movie 'Rams,' about two rival sheep farmers in a remote Icelandic village.

Now in its 40th year, the Toronto International Film Festival is officially a venerable institution, but it is taking place this season at a time when the film business is undergoing more than its usual flux.聽Utilizing new digital technology and other advances, movies can be made more cheaply than ever before, and yet the cost of making Hollywood films has never been higher. New money sources, from Chinese high-rollers to lowly crowdfunders, have altered the financial landscape. Companies such as Amazon and Netflix are also entering the feature film arena.

Distribution outlets are different, too. Streaming services are making major inroads into the traditional theatrical release model. And television has become such a creative arena that film festivals like Toronto are for the first time also featuring TV movies in addition to feature films.

But all this was not in my mind as I raced to a screening in Toronto only to find myself barricaded by a human wall of squealing fans. Who could they possibly be clamoring for? I asked a few of them and no one seemed to know for sure. It was enough that a movie star, any movie star, was breathing the same air.

Of the 399 movies screened in Toronto 鈥� couldn鈥檛 the programmers have made it an even 400? 鈥� a fair share of them had stars attached. One such luminary was George Clooney, coproducer of the Sandra Bullock political drama "Our Brand is Crisis," who got all serious during his photo op. Referring to the imprisoned Egyptian-Canadian journalist Mohamed Fahmy, Clooney pressured Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Canadian government to do the right thing. 鈥淔ahmy is a Canadian citizen and he should be here, not in jail in Egypt.鈥� (Clooney鈥檚 wife, Amal, happens to be Fahmy鈥檚 lawyer.)

Politics, and the politics of politics, always plays a part in Toronto鈥檚 festival fare. One of the more highly anticipated movies was "Truth," a by-the-book political thriller based on the 2005 memoir by former CBS producer Mary Mapes (played in the movie by Cate Blanchett) about the controversy over a 2004 鈥�60 Minutes鈥� expos茅 charging George W. Bush, seeking reelection, with receiving a cushy Air National Guard post to avoid deployment in Vietnam. The story was officially discredited, though the movie stands up for it, and essentially ended the TV careers of both Mapes and Dan Rather, who fronted the report for CBS. Since Robert Redford stars as Rather in the movie, it鈥檚 a case of an icon playing an icon. The final shot of Redford-Rather has a saintly glow.

I spoke briefly with Rather at a reception and asked him what it was like to watch this movie-ized treatment of such a painful part of his life. 鈥淚 had to watch it twice,鈥� he said, 鈥渂ecause the first time I was still too close to it.鈥滱t the public screening, he said that in his career, there were 鈥減lenty of things I would do over鈥� but then knocked 鈥渢he corporatization, politicization, and Hollywoodization of news, where news is trivialized.鈥� Reportedly Redford skipped the premiere of 鈥淭ruth鈥� in Toronto to attend the U.S. Open Women鈥檚 singles final in New York.

Gender politics was also on the map in Toronto. "Freeheld" stars Julianne Moore as real-life New Jersey police officer Laurel Hester, who, while dying of cancer, requested in 2002 that her pension benefits be transferred to her partner, Stacie Andree (Ellen Page). Her request was denied by county officials. For all its sincerity, it鈥檚 a plodding, righteous weepie, but it did raise an interesting thought: A movie thumping for marriage equality now comes across as a period piece.

Michael Moore arrived in Toronto attempting to make a splash with "Where to Invade Next," his first documentary in six years, but the splash was more like a dribble. Because of the film鈥檚 title and the hush-hush publicity leading up to the premiere, many of us assumed we were going to watch a Michael Moore lalapalooza about the US war machine. Instead it鈥檚 a lightweight jape featuring Moore 鈥渋nvading鈥� other countries, from France to that citadel of democracy, Tunisia, in order to bring home the progressive ideals he believes America has lost.

Without exception, the people he interviews all think he鈥檚 a fine fellow. One of his big causes is school nutrition. He thumps for the healthy, balanced lunch menu in French public schools, and the food on view, including prawns, farm-fresh vegetables, and Camembert, does indeed look delicious, not to mention nutritious. I saw the film with a French journalist friend and asked him if this was the norm. Shaking his head, he answered, 鈥淲ell, maybe for Christmas lunch it is.鈥� At the public screening Moore had ushers hand out applications for a Slovenian university he says provides free education to anyone, including foreigners, who qualify. He also handed out free pencils from a German company whose progressive work policies he trumpets in the film. Not exactly 鈥淥prah鈥�-level swag, but it鈥檚 a start. 聽聽

Eddie Redmayne, here last year as Stephen Hawking in 鈥淭he Theory of Everything,鈥� is in another uninspiredly tasteful British film about a social outlier: "The Danish Girl," in which he plays real-life artist Einar Mogens Wegener, who, in 1930, was one of the first recipients of gender reassignment surgery. Redmayne does gender fluidity really well, but his performance is far better than his movie 鈥� a common theme in Toronto this year.

Another case in point: "Legend," starring Tom Hardy as identical twins Reggie and Ronnie Kray, the infamous English gangsters. Through the miracle of no-longer-modern technology, Hardy often shares scenes with himself, and each brother is singularly and vehemently realized. This is no stunt.

Certainly no stunt is the stop-motion animated film "Anomalisa," issuing from the fervid imagination of screenwriter and codirector (with Duke Johnson) Charlie Kaufman. (It won the grand prize at the Venice film festival just before its Toronto screening, and will be released at the end of the year by Paramount, which just bought it here.) Kaufman wrote 鈥淏eing John Malkovich鈥� and 鈥淎daptation鈥� (two favorites of mine) and wrote and directed 鈥淪ynecdoche, New York鈥� (ugh). His new film is about a famed motivational speaker who arrives overnight for a speaking-tour stop in Cincinnati and has an affair with a fan staying in his hotel.

Kaufman once told broadcaster Charlie Rose that 鈥淚 have this very adverse reaction to Hollywood romances. They鈥檝e been very damaging to me growing up.鈥� 鈥淎nomalisa鈥� is like a corrective to that hearts-and-flowers Hollywood approach. Although it falls apart near the end 鈥� all Kaufman movies have third-act problems 鈥� it鈥檚 captivating, smart, and sad, and, as is often true for me of stop-motion movies, also a little creepy. How strange that a movie featuring characters made of felt should express more human longing than most movies featuring actors of the flesh-and-blood persuasion.

The very traditional "Brooklyn," set in the 1950s and directed by John Crowley from the novel by Colm T贸ib铆n, is as conventional as 鈥淎nomalisa鈥� is cutting-edge. Nevertheless it works as a romance without going all gooey on us. It stars Saoirse Ronan as an Irish immigrant who falls for a young Italian man (Emory Cohen), and it conveys with soft dignity the stirrings of young love and the hollows of homesickness.

The biggest surprise for me at the festival, and one of its biggest pleasures, was also one of its most improbable entries: Gr铆mur H谩konarson鈥檚 folksy, poignant "Rams," about two rival sheep farmers in a remote Icelandic village. It did win a major prize at Cannes, so I suppose I shouldn鈥檛 have been so surprised. Still...

The rivals are burly, bearded brothers who haven鈥檛 spoken to each other in 40 years even though they live on adjoining farms. As romances go, the love these men have for their sheep, while entirely aboveboard, is as deeply felt as anything in 鈥淏rooklyn,鈥� which just goes to show that, in the movies, you can create a wonderment about practically anything if you have the talent and the passion.

It鈥檚 a lesson that can鈥檛 be relearned often enough, especially while pacing oneself through 400 鈥� I mean 399 鈥� movies.