juliasf

I saw many excellent films at The Toronto Film Festival. This one really stayed with me. I am not a person who can tolerate visually violent movies and this move respected me as an audience member. I cannot remember a movie with more captivating images which resonated, characters I continue to think about and visuals which prompted me to reconsider my relationship with history and other nations as well as with myself. That sounds kind of major. Suffice to say that I recommend this movie to anyone who would like an excellent story simply told which is both moving and a window on another world. The story is about creeping fascism and the way in which human beings resist heroically inroads against them which demean them. Despite the heavy subject matter, I found this film incredibly uplifting. This is a rare opportunity to see a film which depicts the complicated and sometimes frightening world we live in but with a sense of hope.

I tend to be a rom-com type. It surprised me to relish a film about war. It is not a film without heartache. It is a film which is both inspired and is inspiring. Most of the lead characters are not professional actors. This shocked me. I cry to remember some scenes, but with gratitude!

This incredible actor is given full reign in a film which capitalizes on his ability to be both sweet and intolerably infantile. I am a fan!

I laughed a lot and I really appreciated insight into the world of bi-polar craziness depicted with an even hand and so much love. It was also a skillful depiction of a chaotic 1970's childhood.

This is the director's first feature film, but she knocked it out of the park. Although I would say that casting Mark Ruffalo as a Boston WASP is improbable, it worked for me. The scenes of his extended family are worth the price of admission alone.

Zoe Saldana makes the move possible as she loves everything about Mark Ruffalo that anyone does. I do not know Mark Ruffalo, but I know that he is smart, good-looking, interesting and an exceptionally warm person. The miracle is that this film-maker can tell the story of a difficult youth without any rancor and with insights which are subtle, heart-breaking and hilarious.

The children in this film give it great authenticity. I vote for them!

If you like the idea of traveling to Italy and also of watching period costume dramas, this pick may be for you. I ate it up. I thought the main performance was astonishing and you will rarely see a film which takes better advantage of fabulous locations throughout Italy which appear to just unfurl as scenery miraculously still in existence despite the passage of more than 150 years.

I did not know this poet at all and yet I definitely enjoyed this poetic film. Although I was the only one in the theater who laughed at regular intervals, I think you might find some underlying wit in all the melancholy. Rarely has the cage of being upper class been so well depicted in film. If you want to feel sorry for the independently wealthy nobility of Italy, this film will lay it all out for you.

As a fan of Jane Austin and most of the films made of her work, I heartily recommend this movie for a very interesting escape. It is not a tale of a romance, but rather of a man who's heart is bursting with passion. His brain is ahead of his time and it makes for modern excitement. Great contemporary music is woven in very skillfully.