'BEAUTIFUL BOY'
Maria Bello confessed that when she first received the script for this gut-wrenching drama, she thought she knew what to expect. The story of parents left to grieve after their son is killed in a campus shooting, the film proved to be completely unpredictable—starting with the revelation that their son is the shooter. "On every page, I would think I would know where it was going, and it would surprise me," said the actor. For instance, rather than having a happy couple torn by tragedy, the film opens on them considering separation. Michael Sheen, who plays Bello's emotionally distant husband, said that was the moment he knew this was a unique script. "The fact they're about to split up made me stop and think, 'That's an interesting choice,' " Sheen revealed. "And it told me this was going to be a script of really interesting choices." The British actor adopts a flawless American accent for the film, a choice he made to make his character as unremarkable as possible. "He had to be average, with nothing particularly unique about him on the surface," Sheen said. "Somebody you would never even notice." Sheen added that director Shawn Ku (who co-wrote the script with Michael Armbruster) helped the actors avoid the temptation to do "the obvious thing" with the material. "You don't want to look at this script and go, 'Oh, there's a big acting scene for me,' " Sheen said. "In fact, you almost do the opposite: anti-acting." The movie was acquired by Anchor Bay Films at the festival, where it earned Ku the Prize of the International Critics (FIPRESCI) for the Discovery program.
'ANOTHER YEAR'
One of the it girls of the Toronto Film Festival is British actor Lesley Manville, who won raves for her turn in this Mike Leigh film. As Mary, the bipolar secretary who moves from one disastrous relationship to another, Manville veers from hilarious to repugnant—sometimes within the same scene. She flirts inappropriately with the 30-year-old son of her close married friends (played by Jim Broadbent and Ruth Sheen) and seems determined to be perennially unhappy. Manville noted that when Leigh calls her about a project, she never gets many details. "He just says, 'Do you want to come and do my film?' And the only indication you have of how involved you'll be is how long you get booked for," she revealed. Although some actors might hesitate because Leigh often doesn't work from a prepared script, Manville relishes the opportunity and has become a pro by now: This is her seventh film with him. "He wants you to be your best," she said. "And you want to give him your best." The film is set for a Dec. 31 release.
'THE KING'S SPEECH'
One of the most buzzed-about films at the festival, this drama from director Tom Hooper ("The Damned United") stars Colin Firth as the man who will become King George VI—a role that should earn the British actor his second Oscar nomination in a row, if not a win. The film focuses on the king's relationship with a speech therapist (played by Geoffrey Rush) he hires to help with an embarrassing stammer and how the monarch literally and figuratively finds his voice. Firth admitted he had some concerns with how much to show of George's disability without alienating the audience. "This is a guy who takes 20 minutes to get a word out," the actor noted. "It's hard to pace that one. How much can we afford to dwell on painful silences? Having established them, can we afford to perhaps pick up the pace a bit?" As for the Oscar buzz, which Firth went through last year with his sublime work in "A Single Man," the actor admitted the awards trail is "a bumpy ride." Still, he said, "You certainly wouldn't wish it away. Whatever is happening is almost certain to be helping the film you made. And quite frankly, you know, if people are throwing baubles at you, it makes up for years of rotten tomatoes." The film, which will be released by the Weinstein Co. in late November, won the Cadillac People's Choice Award at the fest.
'EASY A'
The hilarious comedy (now in theaters) about a teen named Olive (Emma Stone) who fakes losing her virginity is the first produced script from playwright Bert V. Royal, who previously parodied the Peanuts gang in the hit play "Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead." Written in a week, "Easy A" landed a top-notch cast, including Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson as Olive's easygoing parents. "They were at the top of my wish list, and I remember thinking, 'We'll never be able to get them,' " Royal recalls with a laugh. "And when the producers told me they'd signed on, I thought they were kidding. This just doesn't happen." Royal is earning raves for writing a smart, clever script that, though set in high school, should appeal to adults, as well. In addition, Royal has crafted a unique heroine, whose voice he captures perfectly. "People who have read the script or seen the film come to meet me, and they expect me to be Olive, but I'm a 32-year-old, balding man with a beard," Royal says. "It jars them a little bit. But I love writing for female characters."
'BARNEY'S VERSION'
In 2004, Paul Giamatti made a splash at Toronto with "Sideways"; he returned this year in another tale of a lonely, hard-drinking writer in an adaptation of Mordecai Richler's last novel. "That didn't even cross my mind," Giamatti said of the comparisons between the two characters. "There's clearly a similar misanthropic thing going on, but Barney is a very different guy. I think he's a little more appealing; he's got some real vitality and spontaneity in life." The film spans several decades in the life of TV writer Barney Panofsky as he recounts such events as his multiple marriages and his friendship with the alcoholic Boogie (Scott Speedman), whom Barney may or may not have murdered. The most vital relationship is that with his third wife, Miriam (Rosamund Pike), whom he meets and falls for at his wedding to his second wife (a hilariously shrewish Minnie Driver). Pike originally auditioned for the small role of Clara, Barney's first wife, but after director Richard Lewis saw her onstage in London in "Madame de Sade," playing the wife of the Marquis de Sade, Lewis suggested she read for the role of Miriam. "I was thrilled," Pike admitted. "Then I met Paul, and we clicked immediately." Just hours before the film premiered in Toronto, it won the Leoncino d'Oro Award in Venice, which is voted on by a group of schoolchildren. "Isn't that interesting?" Pike noted. "Here's Hollywood making these teen-targeted movies, and look at what they pick. They picked this as the story that speaks to them." Sony Pictures Classics acquired the film and plans to release it before the end of the year.
'LET ME IN'
This remake of the 2008 Swedish hit "Let the Right One In" is written and directed by Matt Reeves ("Cloverfield") and follows the same story, which focuses on the relationship between a young boy (Kodi Smit-McPhee) and the girl (Chloe Moretz) who moves in next door—and happens to be a vampire. Many fans of the original were vocally opposed to the remake, but showings at Toronto yielded positive responses. So how is Reeves feeling? "You mean, can I sleep at night now?" he jokes. "I'm so proud of the movie, and I'm thrilled that people are enjoying it. When you work on something for so long, it becomes your baby. And even though I'm happy with how it's being received, there's a part of me that's still worried for the baby, thinking someone's going to be mean to it. But I know that whatever happens, happens." Richard Jenkins, who plays the vampire's devoted caretaker, has nothing but praise for the filmmaker, noting, "Matt's the kind of director who tries his best to be helpful and keep on schedule, but try as he may, he cannot move on until he is happy with the scene. His soul won't let him. He's an artist and endlessly creative, and the artist in him trumps all else." Told this, Reeves responds, "That's an incredibly kind thing to say—and also truthful, because it doesn't say that I'm fast, which I'm not. It's a nice way of saying I'm a perfectionist, I guess." The film hits theaters Oct. 1.