Love is A Force of Nature
Yes, the New York Times is great reading material and a source for inspiration. This paragraph is from last Thursday’s article on The Toronto Film Festival:
One of the most justly anticipated and authentic selections in the festival were Ang Lee’s “Brokeback Mountain,” his adaptation of the E. Annie Prouix short story. Referred to as the “gay cowboys” movie and pegged by at least one wag as a “Gone With the Wind” for gay men, the film stars Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhall as cowboys who, in the early 1960s, begin a love affair that spans more than two decades and survives various wives and girlfriends, among other obstacles. Althoug Mr. Lee tends to make his West look as postcard-pretty as a Marlboro advertisement, he does right by his stars and, in a crucial supporting role, the undervalued Michelle Williams. Mr. Gyllenhaal’s sensitive portrait will be no surprise to his admirers; Mr. Ledger’s wrenching performance is the stuff of Hollywood History
Tfl.org has a fan listing for the short story where the first image is found. There are about 85 members.
"Gone With the Wind" for gay men!? Quite frankly. Give a damn. This may be one of those cases where jumping up and down and pointing a finger is appropriate.
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Ask the multitudes of women and men of all ages who pronounce Jake Gyllenhaal their "dream boyfriend" and they'd probably cite those incredible blue orbs as the initial reason. But sitting in a Toronto hotel room with him earlier this week, it soon becomes obvious that he's got other major virtues: warmth, intelligence, sensitivity and depth.
All those qualities are also on display in the two movies he had opening during the Toronto International Film Festival, which ends today: Brokeback Mountain and Proof.
In one of them, he plays a young cowboy who falls in love with another loner just like himself, and in the other, he's a university math geek who finds himself smitten with the disturbed but brilliant daughter of his former disturbed but brilliant mentor. The fact that the objects of his affection in these two stories are played by Heath Ledger and Gwyneth Paltrow is another indication of how different these roles may seem, at least on the surface.
But to Gyllenhaal, "The most important thing is that they're both about love."
"You know," he says with a melting smile, "falling in love is like winning the lottery. But what draws two people to each other? What creates that chemistry? It's unexplainable."
He swigs thirstily from a bottle of water as he thinks about it further.
"I know there are times when it's bigger than you," he says.
"Maybe it's written in the stars."
But then instantly he waves his hand, mocking that notion. "I'm not the biggest proponent of destiny. I think you make your own. Who knows how we all end up and who we end up with? I'm not one to say."
The 24-year-old, who made his film debut at 11 as Billy Crystal's son in City Slickers and broke through to cult stardom at 21 in the title role of Donnie Darko, has been linked romantically with a wide assortment of young women, most notably Kirsten Dunst.
Their on-again, off-again love affair has recently had tabloids reporting that they're expecting a child, while others linked Gyllenhaal (however fleetingly) with the likes of Lindsay Lohan and Mischa Barton.
He tiptoes gently around the issue.
"I believe there are many people you can truly love in your life. Well, maybe not many, but definitely more than one. That's what's so interesting about relationships.
"What comes to you out of nowhere is the feeling. Then you choose whether or not you want to hold on to it. I feel that choosing is deep love and it's a huge commitment."
He steers the topic back to the difference between the two love affairs he's lived on-screen in Toronto this past week.
He describes the union of the men in the western world of Brokeback Mountain as "the meeting of two people who are so lonely and share that loneliness in common above all else. They never knew how much they needed someone until they met and then it changed their lives forever."
The mathematical milieu of Proof, on the other hand, demonstrates to his character Hal "the real struggle between needing something logical, something which really makes sense, a kind of equation for love. Of course, there is no proof for love and that's what he finally has to learn."
There's a silence as Gyllenhaal tugs at the sleeve of his white cotton shirt. When he speaks again, his voice is a bit unsteady. "I've just recently experienced a loss in my life and it made me realize that the feelings I thought I was supposed to feel are not the feelings I really felt." He pauses. "Well, some of them are, some of them aren't.
"There's a tremendous sense of relief along with a tremendous sense of grief. A sense of possibility along with a huge sense of regret."
He moves closer to share his discovery, but when asked about the nature of his recent loss, Gyllenhaal demurs. "I've come to realize that all the feelings are okay. There's not just one feeling that you're supposed to feel."
Gyllenhaal connects the dots to how this applies to his work. "I just wish to represent myself. I wish suits to fit me. I don't have to fit a suit. If you give me a suit that's too large, I'm not going to gain weight; I'm going to tailor it to fit me.
"That's a metaphor for how I act and I feel it's therapeutic for your life."
His soft-spoken voice grows more emotional as he warms to his theme.
"I'm not going to force myself into an idea or beat it out of myself. I'm going to show up and represent whatever feelings I have that day, incorporate them into the scene and understand that emotions sometimes fly all over the place." He leans back on the sofa and closes the famous blue eyes.
"I like to be given a space and go wherever I feel I need to go within it."
Big screen savers
Festival's Oscar-worthy turns bring quality back to box office
By JACK MATHEWS
While the future of Hollywood's box-office slump remains murky, the just-wrapped Toronto International Film Festival made clear that the drought in movie quality is over.
Among the 335 films shown over 10 days in Toronto were more than two dozen scheduled for release in the U.S. before the end of the year. Many of them will live on as Oscar nominees in the subsequent months.
And if the enthusiasm at Toronto is any measure, actors — including Charlize Theron and Philip Seymour Hoffman — may have already locked up a half-dozen spots on the Academy ballots.
Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon, who co-star as late country singers Johnny Cash and June Carter in "Walk the Line," do their own singing and do it well enough to make "Walk the Line" play more like "Ray" than Kevin Spacey's Bobby Darin fiasco, "Beyond the Sea."
If Phoenix were to make the Best Actor Oscar ballot, he could count on being joined by Hoffman, pitch-perfect as Truman Capote in the biographical drama "Capote," and probably by Heath Ledger, who is a revelation as a macho cowboy who falls in love with another cowboy (Jake Gyllenhaal, also a potential nominee) in "Brokeback Mountain."
Among the women generating awards buzz were Theron, for her gritty "Norma Rae"-like performance as a female miner in Minnesota suing her employers for sexual harassment in "North Country," and Judi Dench, a perennial Oscar favorite at the top of her game in "Mrs. Henderson Presents."
Dench plays a woman who rescues a dying London theater in the early 20th century and brings the audiences back mostly with scandalous nude revues. "Mrs. Henderson" was one of the festival's consensus favorites, along with David Cronenberg's "A History of Violence" and Ang Lee's "Brokeback Mountain."
"A History of Violence," which opens Friday, stars Viggo Mortensen as a quiet family man in small-town Ohio whose violent past is dredged up by an act of heroism during a diner holdup.
Mortensen and Maria Bello, who plays his flummoxed wife, could be in awards contention, and it would be an oversight if William Hurt, who shows up late to steal the movie, doesn't find a spot on the supporting-actor ballot.
Anthony Hopkins does a wonderful bit of ham acting in "The World's Fastest Indian," based on the true story of an eccentric New Zealander who broke land-speed records in a modified antique motorcycle. At the moment, "Indian" is slated for an Oscar-qualifying run in Los Angeles in December with a national rollout to follow in January.
If there was one sure Oscar bet at Toronto among movies, it was "Brokeback Mountain." Faithfully adapted from Annie Proulx's short story, it tracks 20 years in a gay relationship that ranges from sublime passion to heartbreaking anguish.
Besides the two male stars, the film features terrific performances from Michelle Williams, as the long-suffering wife of one of the cowboy lovers, and Anne Hathaway — like you've never seen her — as the unsuspecting wife of the other.
Gretchen Mol might have been in line for Oscar consideration for her show-all portrayal of a 1950s cult pin-up queen in Mary Harron's "The Notorious Bettie Page." But the movie is not scheduled for release until March. I don't know if they'll be touted for awards, but Pierce Brosnan is as endearingly weird as Christopher Walken in the comedy thriller "The Matador," playing an international assassin with career fatigue. And Claire Danes is so luminous in "Shopgirl," she nearly makes Steve Martin's slight novella and screenplay seem weighty.
The bulk of the mainstream movies at Toronto split critics, none more so, perhaps, than John Turturro's "Romance & Cigarettes." It's hard to define, but let's call it a slapstick romantic fantasy, with music! It stars James Gandolfini as a construction worker caught cheating on his wife (Susan Sarandon) with an insatiable tart (Kate Winslet).
As the couple and their three grown children wrestle with the family crisis, they occasionally break into song and dance, as do neighbors, garbage collectors, police and whoever else is around. I found it hilarious, but others were grumbling that it was the worst movie in the festival.
Most people had other choices for biggest disappointment. Among them were Terry Gilliam's very dark childhood fantasy "Tideland," Guy Ritchie's thriller "Revolver" and Cameron Crowe's offbeat, literally all-over-the-map romantic comedy "Elizabethtown."
A statement read before the screening of "Elizabethtown" noted that Crowe is doing further editing on the film. Given how little time there is before its Oct. 14 release and how much work needs to be done, we wish him well.