Toronto Takes: Darwin Had Problems, Too

Toronto kicked off on Thursday night with a movie Ben Stein sure won’t like: Jon Amiel’s “Creation,” starring real-life married couple Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly as Charles and Emma Darwin. They are each superb, even when “Creation” is soft or slow, which it tends to be. Bettany is particularly outstanding. The movie is less about science than about Darwin losing his mind after their eldest child, Annie, dies. “Creation” needs an American distributor. Disney would seem like a good candidate. This is ready made for them…

…If you’re looking for stars during this festival, the only place to be is the lobby of the Four Seasons. This is ground zero for seeing and being seen. Just yesterday, while three of us chomped on a ridiculously’overpriced lunch, the list widened to Peter Saarsgard and Carey Mulligan from “An Education” (this is the must-see small film of 2009), Tilda Swinton, Vera Farmiga, Michael Caine, Matt Damon, George Clooney–who was in residence, director Jason Reitman, Michael Sheen, and Kim Cattrall, who yesterday was inducted into the Canadian Walk of Fame–she’s from Vancouver Island, plus Oscar Isaac from “Agora” and so on and so forth. More deals are being done standing up in the lobby because the pizza is $28. Yes, that’s right.

…The new female Borat is’a viral video character called Suzie Cocktail. You can her on YouTube and at www.suziecocktail.com. Funny stuff…