33rd Toronto International Film Festival Coverage: Day Five
Our coverage today started with the red carpet at the Elgin’s Visa Screening Room for Adoration, the latest film from director Atom Egoyan. The film follows a teen who uses the internet to intertwine his family story with that of a terrorist’s and the resulting firestorm it causes in his school and community. The film earned Egoyan the Ecumenical Jury Prize, which honours directing, at the Cannes Film Festival. Its stars, including Devon Bostick, Scott Speedman, Rachel Blanchard and Arsinée Khanjian walked the carpet as did Degrassi’s Nina Dobrev and screen veteran Martin Landau.
We also headed over to Roy Thompson Hall for the gala premiere of director Rod Lurie’s Nothing But the Truth. Based on actual events, Kate Beckinsale plays a reporter who names a covert CIA operative and faces jail time when she won’t name her source. Lurie, who also directed The Contender, attended the premiere alongside Beckinsale and co-stars Vera Farmiga and Alan Alda.
Back at the Elgin, Jason Isaacs, Jodie Whittaker and Viggo Mortensen braved the rain to go out on the street and greet fans. Their film, Good, stars Mortensen as a Nazi-era professor who must decide between career, family and friendship as his recent novel about compassionate euthanasia makes him a figure in the party’s propaganda plans.
That was followed by the premiere of Stephan Elliott’s Easy Virtue. The comedy, adapted from a Noel Coward play, follows the battle of manners as John Whitaker (Ben Barnes) tries to integrate his new, brash American wife, Larita (Jessica Biel) into his prim and proper English family. Opposed by the Whitaker matriarch (Kristin Scott Thomas), Larita does find an ally in John’s father (Colin Firth). Barnes, Biel and Firth all took turns strolling the carpet for the photographers.
The night ended at Ryerson for the premiere of Derick Martini’s Lymelife. Set in the ’70s on Long Island,the film traces the problems, family battles and other issues that arise when a neighbourhood is hit by an outbreak of Lyme disease. Timothy Hutton, Emma Roberts, Jill Hennessy and a pair of Culkins (both Rory and Kieran) had a relaxed time posing for snappers and fans.