In case you haven’t noticed, we are right in the thick of festival season. Venice is nearing the finish line, Telluride came and went over the weekend, TIFF kicks off on Thursday and festivities in Deauville are now in full swing. That last festival, dedicated to American cinema (ie. getting Hollywood stars over to France to walk the red carpet) boasts a lineup that ranges from the blatantly commerical (“The Lion King“) to actually premiering some new, independent movies. And so, model-turned-actress Famke Janssen will show off her directorial debut “Bringing Up Bobby” (not be confused with the direct-to-video Christian comedy) at the festival today and judging by the first trailer, if anything, this thing is wacky as hell.
Starring Milla Jovovich, Marcia Cross and Bill Pullman, the film sounds like a riff on “Paper Moon” and centers on Olive, a European con artist (Jovovich) and her son (Spencer List) who make their way on the road until Olive’s criminal past comes back to bite her where it hurts. If there is one word to describe the tone of the film from the trailer it would be this: relentless. Janssen doesn’t seem to know how to deliver laughs with subtlety so this thing hammers its quirkiness into submission, taking whatever laughs it has with it. Oh, but then in the last little bit we get to see some of the heartstrings it’s going to try and pull.
There is probably a good reason why this one skipped TIFF and this trailer might be full evidence of that. No distributors are on board yet, but get a taste of it for yourself below along with the official synopsis and another pic from the film. [via ToutLeCine]
Olive and her ten-year-old son Bobby settle in Oklahoma in an effort to escape her past and build a better future. Olive and Bobby blithely charm their way from one adventure to another until Olive’s criminal past catches up with her. Consequently, she must make a choice: continue with a life of crime or leave the person she loves most in an effort to give Bobby a proper chance in life.
