Very few films I've seen take place in the city of Toronto. So, when I heard about this film, and how it looked similar to the anthology film Paris, je t'aime, I immediately wanted to see it. I was not disappointed. Toronto Stories, a drama directed by different directors, does a fine job at showing people's lives, without sugarcoating their stories, like the feel you might get when you walk into a Starbucks.

There are four stories that are all linked, in one way or another, to a young boy (Toka Murphy), who mysteriously shows up by himself at the Toronto Pearson International Airport. He also doesn't speak English, and after he's taken into custody at the airport, he manages to escape, gets on a bus, and begins to wander around the city. We're never told what he's looking for, though. That's one of the few things I didn't like about the film, because it feels like a thoughtless gimmick. However, this changes in the last story, sort of.

First, the boy randomly meets another young boy named Jacob (Ricardo Hoyos) in a park. After they spend a small part of the day together, the lost boy wanders off. Jacob thinks nothing of it, and spends time with his only friend Cayle (Samantha Weinstein). They have a cute relationship, together, as they go back to the park, fight off a group of bullies, and discover what might be a monster living in an underground tunnel. This is where the film begins to take a slight turn. Stop motion animation is used for a creepy nightmare scene. The kids' journey through the park, later at night, sort of becomes a horror film, but it works. It doesn't derail too much from the style previously in the film.

Then, we get into a story about an awkward romance between a man and a woman, who meet in a bar, one night. Their romance is much more awkward than in Woody Allen's Annie Hall, and their dialogue is very funny. The guy is eccentric, with shaved pubes, and dresses in hip-hop clothes. "I'm like Polkaroo," he says. Despite the awkwardness in their relationship, I found it to be sweet and amusing.

This is where the tone of the story changes, again. The last two stories are about crime, and homelessness. A home invasion scene between two ex-lovers is suspenseful, and in a dark way, kind of funny. The criminal who invades the house acts tough, but he also feels bad he's doing this. For the last story, a man, who might be a pedophile, kidnaps the wandering boy in Union Station. A homeless man (Gil Bellows), who plays chess with anyone passing by, sees this, and goes to find them.

So, as a fellow Torontonian, it was nice to look at the familiar and not so familiar locations of the city. However, the film is more than just that. It's a realistic portrayal of life. The acting is good, and so is the cinematography. Although the tone is kind of uneven, like Paris, je t'aime, and I'm not sure if I buy how the lost kid appears off and on throughout the film, these are only small criticisms. In their own way, the characters bring the city to life.

7/10

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