I’m following through on my resolution to watch the movies on my list of the best Spanish films of all times. Today I watched Even the Rain (También la lluvia), a 2010 movie by the famous Spanish director Icíar Bollaín. She is supposed to be this ultra-amazing movie maker but I’m very unimpressed by this film.
Bollaín is obviously very desperate to be noticed by Hollywood. As a result, she creates a product that follows every convention of the worst and cheapest flicks Hollywood ever produced.The movie is very heavy-handed in its treatment of the story. The mean, greedy producer from Spain turns out to be a deadbeat father. His antagonist, a noble leader of indigenous protesters, is, of course, an amazing father. A famous actor is a falling down drunk. An idealistic young movie director discovers that his compassion towards the indigenous people is nothing but a pose. A cynic turns out to be more compassionate than an idealist. The greedy producer is redeemed by his desire to save a little girl. And guess what? He arrives “just in time” to save her. One minute longer, and she would have died. Isn’t that horribly convenient?
This director also has no idea how to work with actors. She takes two phenomenally talented actors, Luis Tovar and Gabriel García Bernal, and doesn’t manage to utilize them in a way that would make their talent come through. The use of music and slow-motion sequences are nauseatingly predictable. Every scene, every move, even the inflections of the actors’ voices made me feel like I’d seen this movie a hundred times before. And I don’t even see that many movies.
Ideologically, the movie is an embarrassing failure. The point of the film is that even those people from the 1st world who pretend to care about the struggles of the indigenous folks only want to use them for their own gains. However, this is exactly what Bollaín does with her movie, too. The protests of the indigenous people in Bolivia are only worthy of her attention inasmuch as they can be used to allow her rich Western viewers to wallow in pleasing self-flagellation.
In short, I was not surprised to discover that this crapola was selected as one of the finalists for the Oscars in the Best Foreign Movie category. Icíar Bollaín was obviously filming for the sole purpose of getting this nomination. I have no idea why I always hear about this director at scholarly conferences. I haven’t seen her other movies but this is commercial garbage of the worst caliber.
P.S. Even the Rain is available on Netflix with English subtitles.
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