For those keeping score after the first weekend of the Toronto International Film Festival, here’s the tally: one thunderstorm, one lightning strike and a few cinematic fireworks.
From the opening night screening of “The Judge” to the world premieres of “St. Vincent,” “Nightcrawler,” “The Equalizer” and “The Theory of Everything,” TIFF 2014 has presented a lavish spread of debuts and attracted a starry cast that includes Denzel Washington, Melissa McCarthy, Robert Downey Jr., Channing Tatum and Bill Murray.
What it hasn’t quite done, though Sunday’s premiere of “The Theory of Everything” came close, is deliver the kind of knockout blow it did in years past, where festival audiences have walked out of films like “Argo,” “The King’s Speech,” “Slumdog Millionaire” and “12 Years a Slave” thinking they’d just seen the Oscar winner.