Paolo Virzì came to the Toronto Film Festival having had a fantasy come true—with The Leisure Seeker, his English-language debut, playing to enthusiastic houses, the director came by the Deadline studio with the two stars he'd wanted from the get-go: Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland, who both praised Sony Classics…

The Leisure Seeker is Italian director Paolo Virzi’s first English-language feature — and it clearly struck a chord with the local audience here at the Venice Film Festival today. (That’s despite downbeat reviews from mainstream U.S. critics.) Social and local media have also gone mad for the film’s leads, Dame Helen M…