Toronto film festival turns gaze from war to love

By Cameron French

TORONTO (Reuters) - A quirky teen-pregnancy yarn and a love story involving a life-sized sex doll have won over critics at the Toronto International Film Festival, stealing the spotlight from darker films on war and politics.

While films with themes wrought from the war in Iraq and global terrorism have drawn a generally positive response, lighter fare such as "Juno" and "Lars and the Real Girl" have also emerged from the pack.

"Lars", which starts 2007 Oscar nominee Ryan Gosling as a man obsessed with a sex doll, has been lauded for a clever script that turns an uncomfortable subject into a love story.

"Juno", directed by "Thank You For Smoking" director Jason Reitman, is about 16-year-old pregnant teen who decides to put her baby up for private adoption.

"They are both comedies, and they are both very, very broad, and yet very very sweet," said David Poland of MovieCityNews.com.

These smaller films have triumphed in the face of larger hype for Iraq-themed films such as Brian De Palma's "Redacted" and Paul Haggis's "In the Valley of Elah", as well as Gavin Hood's "Rendition", a tense look a the practice of detaining terrorism suspects in foreign prisons.

"We have plenty of Iraq and war and blood, but I think the truth is that a combination of films that were not as impactful as people were expecting has kind of made that a secondary issue in a weird way," Poland said.

The thematic bent recalls the flood of films beginning in the late 1970s critical of the Vietnam War, such as "The Deer Hunter" and "Coming Home".