Time was, director Terrence Malick’s films came once in a blue moon, each an organic outgrowth of the filmmaker’s elusive personality and neo-transcendentalist philosophy. It’s only been a year since Malick’s insanely ambitious Tree Of Life divided critics, but now he’s back with To the Wonder, which arrives at TIFF like a whisper on the wind. The reclusive, press-shy Malick wasn’t there, of course, though rumours about him circled around TIFF (we heard someone say that To the Wonder’s producer said that, “Terry wakes up every morning and has literally billions of ideas,” which was pretty funny). Instead, To the Wonder‘s stars represented the film at the Princess of Wales theatre yesterday. Some of them, anyway. Ben Affleck (who of course showed up for the Argo premiere) and Javier Bardem were AWOL. Ditto Rachel Weisz, whose role was cut at the last minute (Malick is notorious for reshaping his films in the editing suite). But local girl Rachel McAdams, dressed up in a Gaia-green dress, and co-star (and ex-Bond girl) Olga Kurylenko made an appearance, gamely fielding questions about Malick’s obscure love story. Frankly, we were hoping to catch some of the wheat that dominates To the Wonder’s landscape, but not even a lone grain made its way to Toronto.

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