Every year I see some films at the Toronto Film Festival. I usually avoid American films, but this year, Carrie Pilby had an intriguing premise and, what the hell, the Cohen brothers and Alexandre Payne are also American and they make excellent movies. So I decided to renounce my no-American films prejudice and ... I got to regret spending 2 hours and $22 that I will never get back. As I said, a very interesting premise - an exceptionally bright young woman's quest for fitting in and for finding her way. It was such a lost opportunity! Mediocre acting (I have seen better in sitcoms), hardly any character build-up, formulaic situations with formulaic and oh-so-predictable resolutions. In order to remind us that the main character was extremely brilliant they made her drop names (Kierkegaard, Camus and Salinger) and mention in passing that she reads 20 books or so in a single week. Other than that, she did not come across as bright or, at least, special in any way, even if they made her speak with a British accent. It was such a mediocre, run of the mill, formulaic, predictable film that they did not even miss the chance to lecture us - insistently and at a great length - what constitutes an acceptable sexual relationship and what does not. (Don't get excited, no nudity.) Oh, and in order to use all cookie-cutter trademarks of an American B movie, they also had some cool and oh so cute guys hitting on our genius girl. Sigh! PS: If you are into sugary romantic flicks, do watch it, but don't spend $22 to see it at a festival - they have these movies every day on most TV movie channels.
Review of Carrie Pilby
