Set in the Argentinean rain forest this is part western and part eco tale. It stars one of my favourite actors Gael García Bernal, as Kai, and he also co produced it. We have a poor subsistence farming family who are targeted by nasty thugs working for a land grab company – we are never sure what their ultimate aim is.
Kai ends up going to rescue the abducted daughter of one of the farmers but in so doing puts himself on a collision course with the evil ones.
Now this has a few clichés in it and has borrowed heavily from other films in the western genre. The action is limited, but when it happens it is well done. The cinematography is lovely – but hard to go wrong when you have the bounty of a rain forest at your feet– probably. The performances are all above average too but where it falls down is the thin story line. It is good versus bad with next to no ambiguity at all and almost no back story – this makes it hard to put everything into context.
That said I still enjoyed the watch – but would not want to see again, so a rental option here methinks. Original title is 'El Ardor' and filmed in Spanish with good to average sub titles and a run time of 96m minutes; this is one for those that like the sides nice and firmly drawn and appreciate some good old fashioned retribution.
Kai ends up going to rescue the abducted daughter of one of the farmers but in so doing puts himself on a collision course with the evil ones.
Now this has a few clichés in it and has borrowed heavily from other films in the western genre. The action is limited, but when it happens it is well done. The cinematography is lovely – but hard to go wrong when you have the bounty of a rain forest at your feet– probably. The performances are all above average too but where it falls down is the thin story line. It is good versus bad with next to no ambiguity at all and almost no back story – this makes it hard to put everything into context.
That said I still enjoyed the watch – but would not want to see again, so a rental option here methinks. Original title is 'El Ardor' and filmed in Spanish with good to average sub titles and a run time of 96m minutes; this is one for those that like the sides nice and firmly drawn and appreciate some good old fashioned retribution.