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DVD Viudas
 Run time: 100 min Rating: 6.3 Genres: Drama Director: Marcos Carnevale Writers: Marcos Carnevale, Bernarda Pagés Stars: Graciela Borges, Valeria Bertuccelli, Rita Cortese |
| Storyline A married man’s death puts his widow and mistress in an unusual living arrangement. |
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| Details: Country: Argentina Release Date: 18 August 2011 (Argentina) |
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DVD Viudas
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'Viudas' is an Argentine movie, so that's to say that it's a movie that came from the most intelligent and sensitive country in South America when one thinks about movie industry. Unfortunately, 'Viudas' is a movie that never defines itself. Is it a black romantic comedy? Is this a drama about love and its pains and losses? Well, whatever the right answer – and that answer must be given by the audience – the outcome is disappointing and unsatisfactory. In fact, 'Viudas' seems like a TV episode in an ordinary soap opera with all the shallowness and weak propositions that is typical in this kind of production. The story concerning the relationship between an old man and a young radio reporter and the discovery of that liaison by the man's wife after his death is treated with almost unrealistic tones and far fetched situations that never involved the audience until the extremely sentimental and routine end. The movie is not so terrible, although its weaknesses. Even here you can find out the sparkle and intensity of movies made in Argentina. The great spotlight here is the hilarious and realistic performance of Rita Cortese.
The story is quite simple. Augusto suffers a heart attack and he's brought to the hospital by Adela, his young mistress. Elena, Augusto's wife, goes there too. That's where the two women meet. They've been sharing a man during 5 years; Elena never noticed it.
They're so different but, at the same time, so alike: both of them are alone and almost desperate after the sudden departure of their man. And they try to support each other, the best they can do. Elena as sort of a stepmother to Adela; Adela as the daughter that Elena never had. They have to learn about each other. It will take time, and many scars have to heal through the whole process.
Some questions have no answer during the whole movie. What's Adela's background? Is she alone in the world? Where are her parents? Are they alive or not? Why is she so much obsessed with Elena? Why does she need to be accepted by her? I'd like the movie to go deeper into these matters. That's probably the biggest flaw in the plot.
Graciela Borges as Elena is flawless, as usual. She's so full of herself, and cannot believe she has been cheated for such a long time (she had portrayed a very similar character a year earlier, the bossy Susana in "Dos hermanos"). Esther, her best friend and unconditional accomplice, is brilliantly played by Rita Cortese. The friendship between these two mature women is one of the strongest points of the film. Valeria Bertuccelli as the young, immature and disoriented Adela gives a quite credible performance too. I also need to mention Justina, the androgynous maid, who is constantly challenging her boss. She doesn't care, Elena cannot fire her: she knows "too much". She adds the bizarre and comic bits, they are a breath of fresh air in the middle of so much tension between the two principal characters.
I'd say there's not much story: just two women who have to accept each other's existence. But the whole movie is saved by the amazing acting. That's Borges, Cortese and Martin Bossi as Justina. I really enjoyed the movie, and I think a sequel would be necessary to tell us more about their past. And about their future, too.
My rate: 7/10.
As you may well presume, this is a drama, although "drama" is not en English acceptable word for what you will experience through this movie.
The movie starts in a very low tone, with the dead of the main husband, the one that is then suffered through the eyes of the widow, and… well, the young lover, to this point everything is good and understandable, a very well made first moments, but then… well, the movie keeps on showing us the grief, the pain, crying and more crying, suffering and constant disrespect between all the characters and up to that point, it becomes a moot point, you will suffer through the whole movie if you think you can endure it.
The movie is dark, very dark, painful and on top of it all the atmosphere is dreadful and filled with hopeless moments, the soundtrack doesn't help either and became the most annoying factor about this whole fiasco, it's just plain horrible, insipid and uninspired and only does a good job of putting the viewer on the hopeless mood even more.
The main problem with this movie is that all the characters takes the situation far too seriously, there are almost no fun moments and the balance of the whole thing is so bad that you will feel bad about the whole thing if you are brave enough to finish it.
Well, I finished it just for the sake of doing this review, the ending scene is far from good, it's horrible, even when good things are supposed to be happening the director does not want us to feel it, or does not know how to, this is because the script is tedious as hell.
Well, you get my point, this is not a good movie. Argentina has far more better cinema than this…. sorry, but this is just for people who really like to be depressed or enjoy seeing people being treated bad on screen.
3 out of 10.