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Trust Weighted
Pretty Awful
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5Trust Points
BigdaddyDave's Review
Summary - Pretty Awful 0.5
A minimalist foreign language film from Argentina, about a sailor on a cargo ship who visits his home while in port. Farrel (Juan Fernandez) works on a cargo ship, which is docking in Tierra Del Fuego. He asks the captain for permission to visit his family while in port. He travels across snow covered mountains and woods, to get to a lumber mill where he meets with his mother and daughter. After spending a few days with them, he goes back to the ship.
I have already probably typed more lines in this synopsis than there is of dialogue in this movie. Suffice it to say that director Lisandro Alonso believes in very little action or dialogue, instead focusing on the mundane, everyday habits of Farrel. There must be at least three different scenes where we do nothing but watch Farrel eat a meal, while looking around. We become starved for any type of action or interaction, which may be the point of this movie.
I like to consider myself pretty open to different types of films, and I’ve never shied away from a decent foreign-language film. However, this one didn’t work for me. The complete lack of meaningful dialogue, along with a propensity for the director to use fixed image shots (watching Farrel walk across a field for three minutes), turned me off. I generally need a bit more movement on the screen.
I would not recommend this to anyone, other than someone who is much more patient with slow, methodical films that don’t posses much dialogue. I was very disappointed.