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Favorites, but few breakouts, at Toronto film festival opening weekend

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The opening weekend of the Toronto International Film Festival are some of the most important days on the film calendar, in recent years propelling pictures such as “Slumdog Millionaire,” “Gravity” and “The King’s Speech” on major commercial and awards runs.

But as the fusillade of movies finally began to slow Sunday evening, something was missing: a clear breakout. A number of films had cemented their status as potential crowd-pleasers, while others were being cautiously tipped as award contenders. A juggernaut, however, had yet to emerge.

“St. Vincent,” starring Bill Murray as a gruffly comedic Vietnam veteran, received one of the warmest audience receptions of the festival when it premiered Friday. Murray riffed with the crowd (“I’m going to answer that question seriously because you’ve come dressed seriously,” he told an audience member in a Toronto Raptors get-up) as the film appeared well poised for its theatrical opening by the Weinstein Co. on Oct. 10.

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“Bill’s been playing across the generations for 30 years,” the film’s director, Theodore Melfi, said in an interview Saturday. “People who are 11 love Bill for what he’s done more recently, and people who are 60 love him for ‘Meatballs’ and ‘Caddyshack’ and ‘Stripes.’ He is transcending time.”

Other films were making similar populist bids. Dan Gilroy’s “Nightcrawler,” an off-kilter look at Jake Gyllenhaal as an ambulance-chasing amateur video journalist, was received strongly by audiences, setting it up nicely for its release from Open Road Films on Oct. 31.

Taking place Sunday night was the premiere of “This Is Where I Leave You,” a dysfunctional-family tale from “Night at the Museum” director Shawn Levy that hits theaters Sept. 19. The dramedy, starring Jason Bateman and Tina Fey and backed by Warner Bros, seeks to position itself as an antidote to darker fall films on the one hand and as a more poignant alternative to broad studio comedies on the other.

“This was a movie made on a human scale about the funny-sad experience of being part of a family,” Levy said in an interview. “It’s universal; it’s everybody.”

The more determinedly prestige-oriented pictures, however, had yet to establish a pecking order.

One of the lead candidates thus far was James Marsh’s “The Theory of Everything.” Playing to a very enthusiastic reception Sunday night, Focus Features’ fact-based story of physicist Stephen Hawking and his first wife, Jane, stars British up-and-comers Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones. It carries high hopes thanks to its period setting, compelling subject and other Oscar-friendly elements, and Redmayne became an instant front-runner right after the movie screened. After the premiere, he told The Times about his intricate body maneuvering for scenes; n speaking to the audience, he characterized the role as “terrifying, brilliant and inspiring.”

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Several movies set to play Toronto later in the week also had begun to build momentum. The Benedict Cumberbatch code-breaker picture “The Imitation Game” and the Reese Witherspoon survival drama “Wild” also met many of the awards criteria and were pegged as contenders, though neither has yet established a clear foothold.

The murkiness was partly the result of a new festival rule.

Historically, films such as “The Imitation Game” and “Wild” would have played Toronto’s opening weekend. But distributors of those movies had opted to screen them at the Telluride Film Festival first, and under the new regulation they were not eligible to play during Toronto’s first four days. Instead they will unspool this week, at a time when the tastemaker decibel level is traditionally lower.

Several other films — such as Jason Reitman’s tech-centric family drama “Men, Women & Children,” which Paramount releases at the beginning of October, and David Dobkin’s “The Judge,” starring Robert Downey Jr. as a big-shot lawyer and set for an Oct 10 release from Warner Bros.— received mixed critical response when they premiered, complicating their prospects.

The uncertainty leaves open the field for films that have yet to premiere at any festival, including “Gone Girl,” the new David Fincher work based on the bestselling thriller that is opening the New York Film Festival; “Inherent Vice,” the new Paul Thomas Anderson film adapted from a Thomas Pynchon novel that also will have its world premiere at New York; and “Fury” and “Unbroken,” the World War II dramas from star Brad Pitt and director Angelina Jolie, respectively, which for the moment are bypassing festival premieres.

Toronto is also a place where movies in need of U.S. distribution will seek enthusiasm from local audiences and, in turn, a deal from the buyers who populate screenings. Noah Baumbach’s intergenerational marital dramedy “While We’re Young,” Chris Rock’s comedy “Top Five,” Bill Pohlad’s Brian Wilson tale “Love & Mercy” and Oren Moverman’s homelessness drama “Time Out of Mind” all are among the audience favorites seeking distribution out of the festival, likely for release in 2015.

The festival also offered a chance for North American audiences to get a glimpse of “Foxcatcher,” the Bennett Miller wrestling drama, and “Mr. Turner,” the Mike Leigh biopic about J.M.W. Turner, which premiered to acclaim at the Cannes Film Festival in May and are considered award contenders.

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One area that did gain some clarity in Toronto was the best actor race. The festival’s world premieres featuring Redmayne and Murray, the North American premieres with Steve Carell and Channing Tatum (“Foxcatcher”) and Timothy Spall (“Mr. Turner”), and the Canadian premiere of Cumberbatch in “Imitation Game” — all on top of previous contenders such as Ellar Coltrane of “Boyhood” — were enough to give Oscar voters fits.

Adam Driver, who won a top acting prize at the Venice Film Festival on Saturday, has three movies at Toronto, including “This Is Where I Leave You,” “While We’re Young” and his Venice winner, “Hungry Hearts.”

Driver’s “While We’re Young” costar Naomi Watts has two films at the festival, including “St. Vincent,” to complement her highly touted fall drama “Birdman,” which played Venice and Telluride. In “St. Vincent,” she takes a rare turn to comedy, playing an outspoken Russian prostitute, a decision she undertook with some relish.

“I was going all out, and possibly even too far at times,” she said in an interview. “But it’s new territory, and I just wanted to bust out. I’ve been in chains, and this was like a wild animal coming out of a cage and needing some taming.”

steve.zeitchik@latimes.com

Twitter: @ZeitchikLAT

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