Fest Track On Sirk TV Film Review: DAYS OF HAPPINESS [Toronto International Film Festival 2023 - Toronto, Canada - Remote]

The essence of brilliance usually comes from the imbalance of two things, with one playing against each other. That logic and emotion...the conceit that one can be subjugated…is to put to good use in "Days Of Happiness" [Special Presentations] which follows a late 20s female conductor on her way up in the world but governed in many ways on both sides with her raising, her current love, her need for perfection and her general humanity. The movie doesn't play on sentimentality (until the final moments when its use really gives the film power).

The film, from a different approach takes something like what "TAR" was but makes it more linear and understandable. In that film, Cate Blanchett's character was magnificent but the abstract nature of the plot progression hindered it in many ways. Here Sophie Desmarais as the conductor Emma gives it a very grounded essence of different things she wants to be but the very real repercussions of the way people act around her and how they affect her life. No one is at fault (as far as the characters)...they just have their own path that doesn't fit together like puzzle pieces. That is life. The music and how it reflects rage versus emotion (and everything in between) is well done but not overly cinematic.

The best part is a pay off context with Mahler which had been building in the different actions of both Emma's girlfriend and her father in their relation to her. The narrative reasoning makes sense but the way these moments reflect in her mind during the specific music and how she sees it brings to mind how "Immortal Beloved" did that as people saw what others saw in the mind of Beethoven. Making it real and reflective of real life is this film's strength. Desmarais plays it with just the right amount of empathy, humanity but also confidence as does Nour Belkhiria as her girlfriend Noelle who has her priorities but a very specific set of circumstances. Her father played by Sylvain Marcel also bring a cadence that is required that both has to carry a sense of ego, pride and ultimately sadness. "Days Of Happiness" reflects that a path is connected with moments that get a person where they need to be with cracks along the way. A-

By Tim Wassberg