TOTO LE HEROS Movie Review

Toto the Hero

As a child, Thomas always believed that he'd grow up to do fabulous things—in particular, he saw himself becoming the super secret agent “Toto the Hero,” saving the world, righting wrongs, and being adored. But now, as a bitter, disappointed old man, Thomas (Michel Bouquet) has decided that his failure to achieve those dreams was not his fault. His unhappy life was, he believes, the result of having been switched at birth with a baby that grew up in a wealthy and happy neighbor family, a family that—Thomas has decided—was supposed to be his family. He finally decides to seek the revenge that he now believes to be simple justice; he's ready to take back the happy life that he's sure was stolen from him. Belgian director Jaco Van Dormael's debut film is skillful and intriguing; he takes the audience on a journey through Thomas's mind and imagination at many different periods of his life, adroitly juggling realistic imagery with childhood fantasy to make us understand Thomas's frustration and eventual paranoia. The art of obsessive excuse-making is a great subject for a movie, though Van Dormael seems less interested exploring it than in his protagonist's redemption. And though the movie just seems to stop suddenly, too conveniently giving us—and Thomas—what its director must have thought to be a generous, happy ending a la The Last Laugh, Bouquet's full-bodied, intuitive performance rises above such complaints.

NEXT STOP … The Eighth Day, He Who Must Die, Sansho the Bailiff

1991 (PG-13) 90m/C FR Michel Bouquet, Jo De Backer, Thomas Godet, Mireille Perrier, Sandrine Blancke, Didier Ferney, Hugo Harold Harrisson, Gisela Uhlen, Peter Bohlke; D: Jaco Van Dormael; W: Jaco Van Dormael; C: Walther Vanden Ende; M: Pierre Van Dormael. Cesar Awards ‘91: Best Foreign Film. VHS, LV, Closed Caption PAR, BTV