We survived the end of the world!
At least that’s how it felt last night, when lashing snow and freezing winds made it seem like The Day After Tomorrow was happening for real here in Park City, Utah.
Severe storm warnings didn’t stop us attending the Sundance London party, though, where the booze was flowing freely, and Robert Redford and Eddie Izzard both popped their heads around the door.
Day 4, and the sun’s back at full force, clearly apologising for yesterday’s utter misery. Today’s morning screenings consisted of financial thriller Arbitrage and father-son drama The End Of Love .
The former starred Richard Gere as a hedge fund magnate who’s been a very naughty boy – he’s diddling a younger woman (despite being married to Susan Sarandon), and has racked up a massive load of debt. Things only get worse in the wake of a terrible accident.
Though the script - by first-time writer/director Nicholas Jarecki - packs in some white-hot wit, Arbitrage is often scattershot in its approach, failing to fully explore many of its potential plot threads.
Gere also struggles to bring the requisite bite to his ruthless magnate, mostly resorting to shouting that quickly grows tiresome.
The End Of Love fared better. Written and directed by and starring Mark Webber ( Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World ), it’s a moving drama about the relationship between a struggling actor and his two-year-old son in the aftermath of the loss of their wife/mother.
Heavily improvised and blurring the line between fiction and reality (the kid is played by Webber’s real-life son while Amanda Seyfried and Michael Cera appear as themselves), it’s a raw, unfussy film about grief that had TF pretending there was something in our eye for most of the bus ride to the next venue.
