On DVD (Released 2001). R-Rated, 105 minutes.
This film tells the story of Tenoch (Diego Luna) and Julio (Gael Garcia Bernal), 2 best friends in Mexico City finishing high school and preparing for college, and their fateful trip with Luisa (Maribel Verdu), a world weary married Spaniard that recently located to Mexico City.
Tenoch is the privileged son of a cabinet level official in the Mexican government and Julio is a middle class Mexican. Together they raise hell liek most 18 year old boys and pretend to have the world figured out, despite a dearth of actual life experience. Luisa is married, in her late twenties, and has experienced significant tragedy in her life. After learning of her husband's infidelities and receiving disturbing news regarding her health, she decides to take up the boys' offer of traveling to a deserted beach. Their journey is both literal and figurative, as each character changes along the way.
The film is densely layered with images of the culture and life of Mexico, and in that regard it seems like Cuaron's ode to his home country. As in Children of Men, the setting and circumstances of the film are as important as the story and the characters. Several themes are explored, all intelligently and without pretense: indifference to poverty, class issues, male/female sexuality, the adolescence of males, environmental issues, coming of age and the impact of time and tragedy on the soul, and homosexuality in Mexican culture.
The most interesting themes for me involved Mexico and its culture and poverty, juxtaposed against the unaffected and carefree boys. The sexual issues were not especially interesting, especially the scene at the end of the film involving implausible actions by the 2 boys that ultimately spells the demise of their friendship. If not for that scene, this movie would have gotten an A-.
Favorite scenes: The entire sequence at the beach with Chuy and his family, itinerant fishermen that guide the trio around the beautiful and uninhabited beaches of Mexico.
2 comments:
I saw this four years ago and completely concur with your opinion regarding the sexual scene towards the end. Honestly, a fair amount of the sexual content seemed a bit forced to me, and, as you say, was some of the least interesting aspects of the film. Still, the film is extraordinarily well made and introduces us to Bernal. It's been too long since I've seen it, but I'd place it around a B as well.
I had a problem with the pool scene as well. Unless it is being thrown in Jodie Foster's face, I seem to have a problem seeing man-seed.
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