Scanialara You won't be disappointed!

SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Pluskylang Great Film overall

Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Sourav Roy If there is one film after Citizen Kane based on a man's whole life, it has to be the Belgian film Toto le Heros. This film about fate, love, and childhood fantasies which are very hard to describe. Take a kids film of Von Trier, add a spoon-full of Amelie, an essence of Donnie Darko, a sprinkle of Lynchian strangeness and Terry Gilliam's wackiness, garnish it with Citizen Kane and The Third Man, and you'll meet Toto! Sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes funny, sometimes weird, always captivating; this is a film for people who enjoy non-linear and creative story-telling. Also, that much talked about floating plastic bag scene from "American Beauty" is taken straight from this film's unforgettable final scenes! Students interested in editing should learn from this film. This film sets the standards of modern editing, which can be compared with likes of Saving private Ryan, Requiem for a dream, The Conversation and City of Gods. The narration may seem complicated but the story-line is as simple as that- an unpredictable tale about a man who always thought he was nobody, and found at the very end of his life, that he was, in fact, a hero!

jotix100 Thomas, an old man confined to a nursing home, cannot help but to reflect on his life since he has nothing else to do. Thomas, of "Toto" as he was known by his family and friends, was a child that always thought he was changed at birth as the hospital where he was born is destroyed by a raging fire. The baby next to him, ironically, becomes his neighbor, and tormentor for most of his life.Home life for Thomas was full of hardships. The loss of his aviator father in a plane crash marked him for life. The fact that the accident was provoked, in part, by Thomas' neighbor, Mr. Kant, the rich man next door, will perpetuate his resentment toward Alfred Kant. Thomas' mother had to make ends meet, having been left with three children. To make things more difficult, Celestin, the youngest brother suffered from autism.Alice and Thomas became closer as the result of not having a father around. Thomas was prone to dream in cinematic terms, thinking he was going to avenge his father's death. In his reverie, he saw a gangster film where the Kants were given their due. Alice held an attraction over Thomas that was reflected later on when he was an adult in Evelyne, the wife of Alfred Kant, who happened to live in the home that stood next to his house. The older Thomas decides to escape the institution where he has been confined to take care of Alfred, now an older man, living by himself.Jaco Van Dormael directed the film. He also collaborated on the screenplay. The director's choice of a non linear narrative might seem confusing for some viewers, but the end result is quite satisfying because one can see what his intentions were. Resentment, in many ways, played heavily on the Thomas' character. He went through life thinking his stolen life was lived by Alfred.Michel Bouquet, the distinguished French actor, does a fine job as the older Thomas. The other stages of his life were played by two wonderful players, the young Jo De Backer and the adult Thomas Godet. Mireille Perrier is seen as the younger Evelyne. There is an excellent performance by Sandrine Blanke as Alice.

mestos Toto the Hero is one of those rare films that improves with each viewing (and you will want to watch it again and again) there are enough levels going on to satisfy the hardened movie deconstructionist but at the same time the story-telling is engagingly simple and seemingly naive. At the surface level a narrative of lost love, mistaken identity, family tragedy, life/death and tulips. Dig deeper and there is a complex reflexive subtext about language and subject identity that encompasses philosophy, psychoanalysis and the role of the media itself. Joyce, Levi Strauss, Freud and Lacan are cited alongside countless references to cinema and television. Watch the opening of Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard or read the first page of Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man after Toto and you may catch my drift. A truly superb piece of cinema that skillfully manages to avoid the post-modern posturing that condemns many of Van Dormael's contemporaries.

Cinemaquebecois The first movie from Belgium director Jaco Van Dormael is pure magic. It's what cinema should always be.I've just seen the movie, for the third time, on TV past midnight yesterday and I couldn't close my eyes. Why ? Because Van Dormael knows how to tell a story. Also, you become very attached to all the character, bad and good one.The cinematography give you the impression that you are dreaming. The camera is so light and the colors are so bright so you know that the imagination of Thomas, the "Toto" from the title, is working very hard to remember exactly what happened in his childhood.If you love a good story with a very interesting plot, this is the one.