Reviews

A surprisingly good ending and the presence of Aline Küppenheim almost redeem this pathetic Chilean export, but you need to endure ninety minutes of uneven fluctuations among pedantic "artsy-fartsy' scenes and several sequences that sink into plain stupidity. This flick tries hard to reach a "primer-mundista" cinematic status, using every single cliché we have already seen too many times in European and American Independent Cinema, since Lelouch to Tarantino and younger independent film directors. It is not the process of appropriation of foreign artistic devices towards the creation of an own, original cinematic discourse. This is just pure imitation, a desperate "North American/ European art movie wannabe," that gives the "old fashioned," "non postmodern" concept of underdevelopment another meaning.

All sequences are very well packed: Sebastián Muñoz main concern is to make everything look pretty, designing a Santiago that looks like a sophisticated boutique, a delight for any international travel agency (his shots of Santiago's skyline are quite successful in making them look than any large city in Europe and the United States). Even when his director/scriptwriter descend with him for a few minutes—like the central character—to the ugly/old/poor parts of the city, their elitist, pedantic gaze offers a "disinfected," retouched image of the low classes, so it would not stain this huge strawberry cheesecake they are selling for the exportation. They would do right in Vogue Magazine, Travelocity, or Mega-Vision.

The worst part of this flick is the script. With very few exceptions, it is an unfocused combination of sequences that alternate between the perfunctory and plain stupidity. There are, although, a few interesting moments (like Alejandro Sieveking's short scene), good ideas for TV film clips, but they vanished among the overwhelming rubbish that surrounds them. The "lost briefcase" that serves as an axis to bring different characters together has already been used and abused and this Chilean produce that not offer any new, interesting variation of it. Furthermore, it does not work since the movie is totally unfocused at least for it first 90 minutes. The final scene at the hospital has a smart turn and saves this saga from a total disaster, but cannot bring all this chaos together. A short movie of 20 to 25 minutes around this ending might have worked better. Alice Scherson has in fact some talent, but it is too self-indulgent and downright pedantic. She is too superficial, heavy handed and lacks the intelligence needed to elaborate a project of this scope and complexity. "Play" is just a pretty exercise on emptiness.

Main characters are totally misconceived. Cristina Llancaqueo, supposedly a Southern Chilean of indigenous origins, actually looks like a clone bought at the Parque Arauco. Besides being a total one-dimensional, unsympathetic character, it is performed by Viviana Herrera whose lack of talent and charisma makes her part even more unbelievable. It is a real torture to follow her throughout the movie. Andres Ulloa's character is such a lame, uninteresting jerk and the actor so flat, self-conscious and inept, that here is no reason for anyone to follow him even for five minutes. Aline Küppenheim is totally wasted in a totally contrived, superficial character.

There are other sub-plots that are either lost in the script's holes or remain as totally perfunctory additions. Coca Guazzini is always a pleasure to see, but her affair with an Argentine magician and her relation with her son (Ulloa) would be more adequate for a TV soap-opera. Cristina's (Herrera) romance with a gardener ( who looks like a Falabella or Almacenes Paris model just leaving a beauty salon) is totally embarrassing, getting even worse when he, just out of the blue, decides to leave everything in beautiful Santiago to go live with her in the "poor, humid, depressing, bad smelling" Chilean South.

This is obviously a movie for the exportation, with an eye on an Oscar. It may reach far due to the North-American paternalism towards these kind of "efforts" and because is an attractive, well packed commodity (a triumph for globalization and neo-liberal high middle class in Chile and abroad). It is also the big lie that unfortunately most people want to believe.

My first feeling was that I had already seen this kind of stuff too many times already and much better (even in TV). Although the cast was good (most of them deserve better), characters were so unconvincing and the dialog so cheesy that it was impossible to feel any sympathy for them. It is the typical script written with old recipes in the hands of an inept, extremely heavy handed director. Every scene was irritably predictable, except when towards the ending, the film goes overboard, with a total misfired "tour de force." I am sure that this flick will be very successful among family values audiences and the final bloody and extremely severe beating that the gay character gets from his 'straight' friend would be a real treat for hate and neo-Nazis audiences.

I am not giving a 1/10 rating out of respect for the actors (the only reason that I saw this TV produce until the end): I feel sorry for some of them.

Why Mike Figgis is directing a movie like this? The answer could be the obvious one: after some many interesting cinematographic experiments he needed the money to keep on working on films of his own. "Cold Creek Manor" adds nothing to an old formula for large audiences, but it is very well done and has some original touches. Mike Figgis direction is flawless, keeping always the attention and mantaining his work at a good cinematographic level. The cast is good, although Juliette Lewis is wasted in a character that evaporates troughout the movie. Quaid and Stone did a good job as expected. Stephen Dorff gave the strongest performance (I will not tell more to avoid spoilers). Although this is a movie that will not become a classic as a thriller, it is worth seeing. In fact, much better than most of the crap we had to endure during the Sumer Silly Season. ENRIQUE-3 (also Giordaen, Giordae).