How entertaining? ★★☆☆☆
Thought provoking? ★★☆☆☆ 5 February 2016
A movie review of DESIERTO. |
Youtube review:
|
“Welcome to the land of the free,” Sam (Jeffrey Dean Morgan)
Immigration has been at the forefront of news stories throughout the last year. Then along comes a film from the ground. Instead of vitriolic rhetoric or kitchen sink wallowing, the filmmakers have fashioned a chase thriller as the vehicle for contemplation. Debate is perhaps far easier to swallow, in terms of cinema attendance, if an adrenaline rush surrounds it. And who doesn’t enjoy a lean 94-minute thriller? The problem here is not in the idea, but the execution. DESIERTO is Jonás Cuarón’s second feature. Being in the shadow of father Alfonso cannot be easy. Comparisons are immediately going to be made, and junior does not come off favourably. The opening and closing shots are anomalies, evidencing flair absent from the rest of the runtime.
Immigration has been at the forefront of news stories throughout the last year. Then along comes a film from the ground. Instead of vitriolic rhetoric or kitchen sink wallowing, the filmmakers have fashioned a chase thriller as the vehicle for contemplation. Debate is perhaps far easier to swallow, in terms of cinema attendance, if an adrenaline rush surrounds it. And who doesn’t enjoy a lean 94-minute thriller? The problem here is not in the idea, but the execution. DESIERTO is Jonás Cuarón’s second feature. Being in the shadow of father Alfonso cannot be easy. Comparisons are immediately going to be made, and junior does not come off favourably. The opening and closing shots are anomalies, evidencing flair absent from the rest of the runtime.
|
|
Alfonso Cuarón is the past master of the long exciting take, from CHILDREN OF MEN to GRAVITY. The intricacy and choreography are superlative. Jonás opts to avoid the same route, for obvious reasons, though no other style is offered in its place. There is a lot of running in a rocky desert, which required panache in the presentation. Similar problems hampered BEYOND THE REACH, starring Michael Douglas, from 2014. A movie devoted solely to the cat and mouse requires modulation of incident and rhythm, and high stakes – pinnacles of the subgenre include ’71 and APOCALYPTO.
Set over less than a day, DESIERTO has a dozen illegal immigrants, including Gael García Bernal’s Moises (a play on the name Moses and the promised land?), making the perilous journey from Mexico to America. The truck taking them breaks down, and the passengers are stranded near the Badlands, a name that will live up to its name (but not nearly enough to satisfy). No choice but to cross it, the group of mixed gender and ages head out. The temperature is 120° Fahrenheit (about 49° Celsius) and the people trafficker, Lobo (Marco Pérez), guiding them is setting a fast pace. No quarter is given to the weak – a theme of survival of the fittest is writ large.
The main thrust of the plot comes in the form of Sam (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), a murderous racist, who has taken it upon himself to patrol the border killing those that illegally cross, with the aid of a rifle and a trained canine. “It’s my home. You won’t f*** with me now,” he states. A hint to his backstory, as there is with Tom Hardy’s Fitzgerald in THE REVENANT, is far from enough to create moral greys; that is not their point, they are ciphers epitomising hate/a moral vacuum.
Sparse dialogue and characterisation are both understandable and a negative here. Rare skilled hands can create those on the move, see THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS, and it makes the victims cannon fodder rather than individuals to mourn as they start getting picked off. However, it could be argued the faceless perish all the time, around the world, in attempts at better lives, and the film is merely presenting a notion, albeit in heightened circumstances.
When it comes to humanism discourse, DESIERTO is no THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUIADES ESTRADA or MARIA, FULL OF GRACE. And neither does it have the visceral thrill of NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN.
Using these Google Adsense links help us keep Filmaluation free for all film and arts lovers.
|
|