27th Toronto International Film Festival Coverage: Day Five
Monday was another busy day with three press conferences and four premieres.
The highlight of the day had to be the Moonlight Mile press conference. The film stars Jake Gyllenhaal as young man whose fiancee is killed. He has to deal with his grief, the grief of his late fiancee’s parents (played by Dustin Hoffman and Susan Sarandon) and the challenges he faces when he finds a new love.
The film partially reflects the experience of director Brad Silberling, who was dating My Sister Sam actress Rebecca Schaeffer at the time of her murder by a crazed stalker.
Silberling’s casting of Hoffman and Sarandon, who have never worked together before, was perfect. All through the press conference, they laughed and joked and teased each other like an old married couple. Hoffman said that the chemistry was so good that if he and Susan weren’t married to their respective partners, he could easily see the two of them being together. He also had exceeding high praise for Sarandon’s performance.
Press conference #2 was for the movie Evelyn, which stars Pierce Brosnan and was produced by his company. The film is based on the true story of Evelyn Doyle and her family. Evelyn Doyle was at the press conference and explained how her mother abandoned the family and how, under Irish law, she and her brothers were taken away from her father and placed in church-run orphanages. Her father then elisted the help of friends and family to challenge the law before the Irish Supreme Court and reunite his family. Brosnan said it was great to examine a story outside the Bond genre and both he and Aidan Quinn relished the thought of shooting in Ireland.
Speaking of genre changes, the stars of the next press conference, Jet Lag’s Juliette Binoche and Jean Reno, loved the chance to dip their feet in the comedic pool.
We were off to the red carpets then and covered the premieres of Moonlight Mile, Evelyn, The Emperor’s Club, and Spider.