SILK (2007) - Dir: François Girard (THE RED VIOLIN) with: Michael Pitt, Keira Knightley. The reviews were not kind but there was enough here to keep me interested. Well, most of the time. I think Michael Pitt is an interesting actor, I've followed his work since his turn as the lovesick Henry in Dawson's Creek but I think he is horribly miscast here.
I just checked the NYT review and Stephen Holden agrees: "The film’s problems begin with Mr. Pitt. As he mumbles Hervé’s story, sometimes inaudibly, his character sounds either supremely detached or heavily medicated. With his swollen, chiseled lips and empty blue eyes that sometimes tear up, Mr. Pitt is a reasonably photogenic specimen. But this actor, whose typical screen character is a broken, androgynous man-child, is disastrously miscast."
Pitt is not the only reason that the film fails, the director bears much of the blame with choppy editing and the pace is very, very slow and not in a good way, although there is some good cinematography along the way.
If nothing else, the film made me want to read Alessandro Baricco's novel on which it is based.
2/5
MAN ON WIRE - Wow! Fantastic documentary about Phillippe Petit's guerilla high-wire act on top of the WTC in 1974. I was amazed at how much it affected the people who helped him prepare. Even today, some tear up while recounting this daring event. A strangely afffecting film, fascinating, suspensful, passionate & melancholic. 4.5/5
This weekend I'm planning on seeing WENDY & LUCY which finally opened here to rave reviews (4/4 stars -Globe & Mail)