September
16
TIFF: Iraq Movies
Todd McCarthy sampled a few too many anti-Iraq movies in Toronto.
UPDATE: Great minds think alike: Here's David Carr in the NYT. And the WSJ . And Ted Johnson points out that In the Valley of Elah's weak opening does not bode well for the coming onslaught. This is a movie that did not build a critical consensus going in, which it desperately needed. (On the other hand, Oscar-winner "Crash" was not a critics' picture.) I found the film powerfully moving, as did Richard Roeper, but he was unable to mount much of a defense when the emboldened Robert Wilonsky challenged him on the film. (Now the mutual admirers are going after each other.) There's a dark, sad change in Jones' ex-soldier father when he realizes what the war has done to his son. It's not the usual damage that any war inflicts; it's the disillusionment and corruption brought by this particular war.
I do think the Saudi Arabia film The Kingdom will do better, at a somewhat further remove. It's more commercial. (Here's John Anderson's Variety review.) And I suspect the Afghanistan-set The Kite Runner, which is a close adaptation of the bestselling book, has a good shot too.
[Photo: Tommy Lee Jones in In the Valley of Elah]



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