Young Hollywood has a reunion in Toronto

By Kevin Lally

Hollywood has a long tradition of youth ensemble films, from American Graffiti to St. Elmo's Fire to Dazed and Confused and American Pie. The latest effort, skewing just slightly older than most, is TenYear, which debuted last night at the Toronto Film Festival. The premise is oh-so-simple: therevelations, letdowns and rekindled relationships at a ten-year high-school reunion. And it's also an opportunity to showcase a group of actors in their late 20s and early 30s with various degrees of clout in today's Hollywood.

The marquee name in the bunch is heartthrob Channing Tatum (also a producer), playing a guy on the verge of proposing to his longtime girlfriend but faced with the prospect of reuniting with his high-school paramour (Rosario Dawson), whom he hasn't seen in eightyears. Justin Long (He's Just Not That Into You) and Max Minghella (The Social Network) play successful young businessmen who might not exactly have the dream lives they boast about. Oscar Isaac, who has three films in Toronto including Drive and Madonna's W.E., is a musician with one big hit song inspired by a secret high-school crush. Hurt Locker co-stars Anthony Mackie and Brian Geraghty reunite as best friends,with Geraghty's wife (Aubrey Plaza of "Parks and Recreation") shocked to discover just how into hip-hop and black culture her hubby once was. (On a scale of white to black, he finally admits to being "dark gray.") And another "Parks" regular, Chris Pratt, offers a variation on his TV character of a sloppy man-child, here compelled tomake amends for all the bullying he did in high school. The cast also includes up-and-comers Kate Mara (127 Hours), Scott Porter ("Friday Night Lights"), Lynn Collins (John Carter) and Aaron Yoo (Disturbia).

Writer and debuting director Jamie Linden wrote We Are Marshall and the Tatum starrer Dear John. To call his visual style perfunctory would be overpraise, but he does get his actors to loosen up and develops some poignant turning points for his initially bland-seeming characters. Isaac is especially good--lo and behold, the song he wrote and performed for the film actually sounds like a hit record.

The young, sold-outaudience at the Ryerson Theatre at Toronto's Ryerson University (which seemed to includea LOT of people connected with the film) responded warmly to the movie and the significant cast turnout. (Of the main cast, Mackie, Dawson, Pratt and Plaza were absent due to work commitments.) The film does not yet have U.S. distribution, but that talented ensemble is sure to be a selling point.