Just a quick heads-up that Jonathan Sobol’s directorial debut, the indie dramedy A Beginner’s Guide to Endings, which we reported a while back would premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival this September, now has a more exact premiere date: September 17.

More precisely, Endings will premiere September 17 at 6:30 PM at the Roy Thomson Hall. At this point, we don’t know whether or not Tricia Helfer, as one of the film’s stars, is planning to attend, but although the TIFF website does not list Tricia as an “expected guest” (unlike e.g. director Sobol and co-star Harvey Keitel), the Sep 17 premiere is listed as a “Premium Screening” on the TIFF website, likely meaning it will be a star event. And if this of Tricia’s tweets via her Twitter account @trutriciahelfer is anything to go by…

Looks like I’m going to have to give it a try…or two : ) | torontolife.com: TIFF Cocktail List (Aug 28)

Unless Tricia confirms her attendance intentions explicitly via her various official outlets, we can’t say for sure she will be there, but keep your eyes peeled for pictures around September 17 anyway. After all, it is the film’s world premiere in her homeland of Canada… Fingers crossed!

With A Beginner’s Guide to Endings now having been confirmed to premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, new information on the film is finally trickling in. Check out this official description of the film from the TIFF website; perhaps most noticeably, Tricia Helfer’s character finally has a name — Miranda.

The description as follows:

Duke White (Harvey Keitel) hasn’t been an ideal father to his five boys. An inveterate gambler who never experienced a windfall he couldn’t blow within twenty-four hours, he has come to the end of his rope, literally. Years ago, he signed up his three eldest sons for unsafe drug tests that turned out to have dire consequences: the boys’ life expectancy have been substantially reduced. Upon receiving the news after their father’s funereal, the sons return to their family home in Niagara Falls, where they respond to their eminent demises in different yet equally hilarious ways.

Womanizing Cal (Scott Caan) is determined to hook up with Miranda (Tricia Helfer), the one girl who got away. Cautious Jacob (Paulo Costanzo), the only son with a real job, is determined to take every risk he didn’t take earlier, usually accompanied by Duke’s youngest son, Todd (Siam Yu). And finally there’s his eldest, Nuts (Jason Jones), a boxer turned promoter who seems to have inherited his father’s love of the calamitous long shot.

Written and directed with a keen sense of father-son awareness, Jonathan Sobol’s A Beginner’s Guide to Endings features crackling dialogue and bravura performances. Keitel is hilarious and affecting as a man who can’t even broach a subject without calculating the odds. Caan is perfect as the cocksure Cal, who’s never experienced self-doubt and is now forced to wrestle with it. Costanzo is endearing as a man who never pursued excitement and now can’t get enough of it. Finally, Jason Jones delivers a letter-perfect incarnation of a man who finally realizes that his actions have an impact on others as well as himself. Rounding out the stellar cast are Wendy Crewson as Duke’s first wife and the always reliable J.K. Simmons as Uncle Pal, a preacher in a roadside chapel who tries to counsel the boys (usually to no avail).

A Beginner’s Guide to Endings is a bawdy paean to those of us who have never entirely worked out our relationship with our fathers (which may include pretty much everyone).

The 2010 Toronto International Film Festival runs September 9 through 19. Exact dates remain TBA, but tickets to the festival are now on sale on the festival website.

Great news! According to the Toronto International Film Festival website, Jonathan Sobol’s indie comedy A Beginner’s Guide to Endings will be screening at the festival this September! From the festival press release:

A Beginner’s Guide to Endings
Jonathan Sobol, Canada
World Premiere

Raucous, charming and very funny, Jonathan Sobol’s comedy A Beginners Guide to Endings follows three sons as they deal with their gambler father’s somewhat complicated legacy. Featuring the legendary Harvey Keitel, the film also stars Scott Caan, Paolo Costanzo, Wendy Crewson, Tricia Helfer, Jason Jones, and J.K. Simmons.

Additional details (such as exact dates) remain TBA. Hopefully this means we’ll be seeing Tricia at this year’s TIFF!

Meanwhile, be sure to keep an eye on abeginnersguidetoendings.com / dariusfilms.com/bge for an official site for the film. The trailer, if you haven’t seen it yet, is available for viewing at the Internet Movie Database.

“If you kill her, we can go.”
- David, talking about Lila

Check out these 915 site-exclusive 1080p Blu-Ray screen captures of Tricia Helfer as Lila in the Andrew Paquin-directed home invasion slasher thriller Open House, co-starring Brian Geraghty, Rachel Blanchard, Stephen Moyer and Anna Paquin. Pending distribution, the film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival last April, following which Grindstone Entertainment picked it up for a Region 1 / North American straight-to-DVD release.

Personally, I hugely enjoyed Tricia’s terrific portrayal of the unrestrained, psychologically twisted but ultimately quite insecure Lila. Although Lila is certainly seductive and therein reminiscent of e.g. Battlestar Galactica’s Number Six, what’s really worth noticing is the nuance in character Tricia displays in Lila when “no one’s looking”. Brian Geragthy delivers another powerful performance as Lila’s David, and I really enjoyed the overall attention to detail in director Paquin’s visual storytelling. (As an interesting sidenote, which might be worth keeping in mind if and when you get to check out the film for yourself, according to this DVD Talk review of the film, it’s revealed in the Andrew Paquin and Geraghty-narrated DVD audio commentary that Lila and David are actually siblings. This is only once alluded to in the film itself, though.)

Spoiler Warning: Please note that these screen captures, particularly caps 850-915, contain big spoilers as to the outcome of the film. If you wish to remain unspoiled and just watch the movie for yourself, you’ll have skip these. Sorry.

New Photo Albums:

• Film Work > ‘Open House’ (2010) Movie Screen Captures

Be sure to catch Tricia Helfer as the sociopathic serial killer Lila in debuting director Andrew Paquin’s home invasion thriller Open House, out today on Region 1 / North American DVD and Blu-Ray. Brian Geraghty, Rachel Blanchard, Stephen Moyer and Anna Paquin also star.

Check out these three new reviews of Andrew Paquin’s home invasion thriller Open House, starring Tricia Helfer as Lila opposite Brian Geraghty and Rachel Blanchard, from DVD Talk, FEARnet and Blu-RayDefinition.com respectively. Although reviews on the film overall (these included) have been rather mixed, Tricia and co-star Geraghty’s performances have been unanimously commended as the film’s best.

Update Jul 3: Another two new reviews at Inside Pulse Movies and RockStarWeekly.com!

A couple of excerpts on Tricia’s performance:

“Where Open House’s strengths lie are in its cinematography and direction. Paquin shows potential in this first outing for sure. The film looks crisp, moody, and Geraghty’s character is admittedly unsettling. Tricia Helfer also does a good job as the sexed up murderess. No doubt she’ll win over some portion of male viewers. [...] For a debut film, Open House shows promise from Andrew Paquin, but as a psychological thriller and/or slasher film, there are far better movies in these genres that one might want to view. With that said, Brian Geraghty and Tricia Helfer put on wonderful performances and the Blu-ray from Lionsgate will certainly give you an excellent home theatre experience.” Full review > Blu-RayDefinition.com

“Since this is starting to read more like an essay than a movie review, I’m sure it comes across that I find Lila and David kind of fascinating on an intellectual level, I guess, but I don’t really care about them as characters. There’s not a strong emotional hook to drag me in, and what they do isn’t visceral enough to provoke a reaction in that sense either. Don’t get me wrong; I don’t have any gripes at all with Tricia Helfer or Brian Geraghty’s performances here. Helfer is certainly experienced at playing a manipulative vamp, and Geraghty captures the sort of stillness and lack of emotion I’d expect to see in a sociopath. So many of these types of killers in other movies devolve into dementedly over-the-top, scenery-gnawing cartoons, and I appreciate that Open House doesn’t tear off in that direction. I just never really connected with them, and I’m not sure how to describe it any more effectively than that.” Full review > DVD Talk

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Check out the third Q & A video clip from Tricia Helfer’s official site, in which Tricia answers a couple of fan questions, as submitted to her via her official site / asktricia[@]triciahelfer.com. In this clip, Tricia talks about how she chooses her roles and what attracts her to a character, and how TriciaGreen.com, i.e. her off-the-grid summer house in Alberta, Canada is coming along. Be sure to check out Part 1 and Part 2 as well. Courtesy of TriciaHelfer.com:

Have a look at this very insightful TV Tango interview with Tricia Helfer regarding her new Dark Blue gig. The article sheds a lot of new light on e.g. how she got involved in the series, what it’s been like working on the show, what the prospects are for her character in her debut season and whether she’ll be returning for another season should TNT renew Dark Blue after Season 2. She also talks a little bit about her back injury from this spring and how she got it, and hints at shooting a couple of new indie films this fall. It’s a really interesting and informational read! Full article under the cut.

Question: How did you get your role in Dark Blue?

Tricia Helfer: I got involved through the normal audition process. It was pilot season in Los Angeles and I auditioned for the show and was offered it after auditioning. So I didn’t have a script to work off of. There was just four pages written for the audition. So after I was offered the role, then I spoke with the producers and writers about what they saw for the character for the season and I liked what they had to say and they held up their end of the bargain.

They definitely said she was going to be involved with the team and be a smart, fun, strong character and not just the FBI finger-pointer or that kind of thing.

Question: What drew you to this particular character?

Tricia Helfer: I’ve always had a desire to play a cop or FBI agent. I’m a bit of a tomboy so it’s fun and I think there’s a lot of challenges — emotionally and mentally — playing a role like that and trying to get into the character. This role is fun because there’s also going to be some undercover roles — so roles within the roles so to speak — which as an actor are a lot of fun to play. And then of course just the team that’s behind it — the Bruckheimer camp and Warner Horizon and TNT it’s a great group of people and companies to work with.

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Just a quick heads-up today that we’ve updated the gallery with a new promotional still of Tricia Helfer as Lila in Andrew Paquin’s home invasion thriller Open House, as well as a better-res version of the film’s first and only poster. As many of you will know, Open House is currently slated for an August 3 straight-to-DVD US release. Have a look!

Updated Photo Albums:

• Film Work > ‘Open House’ (2010) Posters & Promotional Photography
• Film Work > ‘Open House’ (2010) Posters & Promotional Stills

Check out this stunning new medium-res studio photoshoot we found today of Tricia Helfer, as photographed at the Tribeca Film Festival last April, where Tricia premiered Open House with director Andrew Paquin and co-stars Rachel Blanchard and Brian Geraghty. The full Open House Tribeca team is also pictured in a couple of photos. Enjoy!

New Photo Albums:

• Photoshoots & Outtakes > Photoshoot #030