The 2008 edition of the Toronto International Film Festival will end on an upbeat note tonight with the gala screening of Stone of Destiny.
This feels like the perfect way to end the action at the 33rd filmfest, after 10 days that careened from dark despair to French sex comedies, and from shattering documentaries to abstract experimentalism.
"It is an award, it is a reward," writer-director Charles Martin Smith told Sun Media yesterday about having Stone of Destiny chosen as closing night. For Martin, an American-born Vancouverite who adopted Canada as his new permanent home, this is the end of an eight-year odyssey.
"It's a great compliment. There is no other way to look at it. As they say in Scotland, I'm chuffed! I am so pleased, just for the movie, for the cast, for all who worked so hard to make this. To get this kind of recognition is really amazing. I am just so pleased."
Smith's charming movie, a Canada-Britain co-production, is a comedy caper shot primarily in Scotland. It is populated by a clutch of hot young actors, including Charlie Cox and Kate Mara, who act out the true story of how Scottish students steal a piece of Scotland heritage from Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day, 1950.
"Everyone's been saying it's a real honour to be the closing night film," Mara, an American playing a Scot, told Sun Media. "That's obviously really exciting. It's a feel-good film but it's not glamourized in any way. This is really what happened, which is kind of awesome."
The theft involved a chunk of rock and what it means to Scotland's national identity. The Stone of Destiny, also known as the Stone of Scone and as Jacob's Pillow Stone, is a 152-kilogram (336-pound) block of red sandstone used to crown ancient Scottish kings. England's Edward I claimed it in 1296 as spoils of war. It ended up in Westminster Abbey, set under the wooden seat of St. Edward's Chair for the coronation of English and then British monarchs.
Cox, an English actor who vaulted to attention in Stardust with Claire Danes, plays Scot Ian Hamilton in the film. Hamilton was the ringleader in the original caper in 1950 (and the real Hamilton has a grumpy cameo).
Cox is unsure of what might happen tonight at Roy Thomson Hall. "I don't know but I'm very excited to find out because this movie has only played in Scotland. Of course, that is the one place where it is going to be taken very differently from anywhere else in the world, as something more than a movie."
Yet Cox is confident Canadians will find it interesting, as well as entertaining, because this country sits in the shadow of the U.S., as does Scotland with England.
"It is a true story. It is a charming tale. And personally I believe it is wonderfully told. If you watch it without any kind of connection either way, then it is a great heist story. It is funny. It is uplifting. It is a good, fun period to be in. And there are beautiful scenes with this wonderful woman!"
Cox is referring to Mara, whom he met making Stone of Destiny. The two will soon embark on a cross-country trip by car, with three dogs, from New York to Los Angeles. "That should be interesting," Cox said with a grin.
In the movie, Cox said, "There is a romantic spark and not just: 'There's the girl and there's the guy thing.' It is deeper than that."
The last day of the festival will also generate the awards, to be announced early this afternoon. New this year is a first-come, first-serve, free screening of whatever film wins the Cadillac People's Choice Award. It will be shown at 9 p.m. at the Elgin Theatre.
