TOTO THE HERO
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1992 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: The reminiscences of a man who blames all the pain of his life on a friend with whom he believes he was switched at birth. Childhood and adult fantasy intertwine with reality as Thomas (nicknamed Toto) plots his revenge on Alfred. Strange but likable film. Rating: low +2 (-4 to +4). (Warning: there are spoilers in this review.)
Thomas van Hasbroeck is unstuck in time. Well, in fact his whole family was a little unstrung in various ways. Thomas grew up with the childish fantasy that he had been switched with another baby, Alfred, in the nursery and the rich kid across the street really belonged to Thomas's family and Thomas belonged to the rich family. Through life, every misfortune Thomas suffered he blamed on Alfred. Every piece of good fortune Alfred enjoyed should have gone to Thomas. Thomas blamed Alfred for the loss of the two women he loved. One was his sister Alice, who was attractive and had a natural flair for arson and incest. Later it was Evelyne, who loved Thomas but married Alfred. All this is a set of disjointed reminiscences of the old Thomas as he plans his revenge on Alfred. At each age, we see Thomas's fantasies of revenge against the dastardly usurper Alfred. Usually they are framed as scenes from a spy film about the great Toto--Toto is Thomas's nickname. And part of what the film is about is the function of fantasy as an important part of how we see reality. Thomas must know that he is making most of his fantasies up, but they impact strongly on his world view.
Flashing forward and backward in time, we see little enigmatic memories as flashes that will later be fleshed out. Eventually we discover that the film has played a nifty little sleight-of-hand on us--a double sleight-of- hand, in fact.
The director and screenwriter of this Belgian-French-German production is Jaco van Dormael, who went from being a clown to being a children's theater director to being a film director. He has fun with children and the way they look at the world.
This film has been getting a lot of positive comment after appearing at several film festivals. It is a little slight for the comment it is getting, but it is worth seeing. I give TOTO THE HERO a low +2 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
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leeper@mtgzy.att.com
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