A journo pal has seen Steve Zallian‘s All The King’s Men (Columbia, 9.22), which shows at the Toronto Film Festival in two or three days. He says it has problems but also merit here and there, and that it’s not a washout or a train wreck. He insists that Sean Penn gives a strong, formidable performance as Willie Stark — Oscar-level, he claims — but that Jude Law‘s Southern accent doesn’t cut it at all, and that this naturally impacts his performance. (Speaking about Law prompted him to make a face.) And just to clarify, it’s Mark Ruffalo who plays the part that Shepard Strudwick played (blam!) in the 1949 film.