by MATTHEW HAYS

Between Strangers certainly feels like an odd animal. Shot and set in Toronto, the film features a stellar cast (Sophia Loren, Gerard Depardieu, Mira Sorvino, Pete Postlethwaite and Malcolm McDowell among others) and is written and directed by the offspring of Loren, Edoardo Ponti. As well, the film is an Italian-Canadian coproduction. I don’t quite know where the Cancon is here, but hell, I guess the fact that Toronto isn’t being masqueraded as Detroit or some other American burg should justify the government subsidy.

The script certainly doesn’t justify it. It’s a sweet little trilogy of stories (trying a bit hard, as it turns out, to be sweet) about three women of different generations facing various life crises. Sorvino plays an up-and-coming photo journalist who has just landed her first Time magazine cover; her father (Klaus Maria Brandauer), also a photo journalist, is pushing her forward, but Sorvino soon has reason to rethink her career choice. Loren is haunted by the daughter she gave up, who has since grown up to become a famous artist. Loren ventures to meet the woman, unable to tell her that she is her mother. Deborah Kara Unger plays a cellist haunted to learn that her father will soon be released from prison after serving a sentence for killing her mother. Don’t these plotlines sound sad?

Sad they are, with Loren’s skillful handling, her role comes closest to drumming up some genuinely felt sentiment. The other bits of the film don’t fare so well. Everything about Between Strangers feels contrived, forced and downright cornball (in particular Depardieu, who’s ludicrous as a sensitive gardener). Despite the considerable star power brought together in this ensemble, the actors are given so little to work with, it dampens their collective talent. All of them feel a bit lost in this, a rather tepid entry.

Despite his pedigree, this can only be regarded as an uneven directorial debut for Ponti. :

Between Strangers opens Friday, Oct. 4

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