Toronto Film Festival

Russell Crowe charms his way through a press conference -- and his new film. Plus: Borat makes us laugh; Will Ferrell doesn't.

By Stephanie Zacharek

Read more: Stephanie Zacharek, Movies, Movie Reviews, Arts & Entertainment, Russell Crowe, Toronto Film Festival, Reviews

Photo: 20th Century Fox

Russell Crowe in "A Good Year."

Sept. 10, 2006 | TORONTO -- The film festival may be the biggest September event in Toronto, but it's by no means the only one. Saturday morning, during the 30-minute walk from my rather modest hotel to the much swankier Sutton Place -- where I was headed to attend a press conference for the new Ridley Scott-Russell Crowe picture "A Good Year" -- I happened to find myself in step, for a span of five blocks or so, with the Tai Chi Taoist Society parade, which consisted largely of groups of cheerfully placid senior citizens in matching orange T-shirts showing off their fanciest Tai Chi moves. (It was kind of a slow-moving parade.) Happening upon a parade isn't such a bad thing during a film festival: When you're trying to pack three, four or more screenings into a day, life outside the movies begins to seem only peripheral. Movies are supposed to reflect life, not usurp it, so a little Tai Chi on the way to basking in the glamour of Russell Crowe can only help you keep perspective.

Actually, it's possible the parade seniors were dressed a little more glamorously than Crowe was: While his "A Good Year" co-star, the casually disarming French actress Marion Cotillard, had that I-just-threw-this-on elegance the French pull off so well, Crowe showed up in a football hoodie and track pants. (I think he'd combed his hair, though I'm not sure.) But that's OK: No sane actor can possibly like the job of answering journalists' well-intentioned but often rather dumb questions, and Crowe managed to come off seeming as if he didn't really mind being there. Sometimes the better part of star power is the ability to be relaxed and convivial even in the most contrived situations -- and press conferences are nothing if not contrived.

"A Good Year" is based on a Peter Mayle novel (Mayle was also present at the press conference), and, like all of Mayle's novels, it's set in Provence. Crowe plays Max Skinner, a scrappy London high-finance type whose uncle (Albert Finney, wonderful as always), with whom he hasn't been in touch in years, unexpectedly leaves him one of those amazing giant French houses that's just charmingly crumbly, complete with vineyard. Max just wants to unload the thing as quickly as possible, enlisting the aid of a lawyer-friend played by Tom Hollander (also in attendance at the press conference -- in fact, Hollander's deadpan zingers could probably improve any press conference). But its not long before the pointy trees, the curvy roads, the mellow golden light of the French countryside all work their magic on Max (the presence of Cotillard's character, a local waitress, doesn't hurt, either) and -- well, you can guess the rest. "A Good Year" is the kind of polished Hollywood product that intelligent, informed, hip consumers of contemporary culture are supposed to sneer at. It's also shamelessly entertaining, and having been shot in the south of France, it's also, of course, fabulous to look at.

Best of all, "A Good Year" restores some of Crowe's casual, throwaway vitality as an actor. Crowe has specialized in stern and serious roles, and he tends to come off as a stern and serious guy, his regular-bloke affability notwithstanding. (As he and his posse were being introduced at the press conference, he scrutinized the audience with a polite yet wary "Who exactly are you people?" intensity.) But Crowe is almost criminally charming in "A Good Year," in a way he hasn't been -- possibly hasn't allowed himself to be -- since, perhaps, "The Sum of Us" (1994) or Claire Peploe's lovely, overlooked 1995 "Rough Magic." Even people who don't much care for Crowe as an actor would have to admit the novelty value of seeing him, in "A Good Year," do a double-take as a group of hens boldly invade the hallway of his run-down manse, incensed because they know it's really their house. When press-conference moderator Henri Behar pointed out to Crowe, with respectful earnestness, that this was his first light comedy role in a long while, Crowe responded devilishly, "Well, there's a lot of laughs in 'Gladiator,' mate. You chop someone's head off the right way -- fuckin' funny!"

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