I might have been back on line sooner if my computer hadn't moved up the Swanee during my absence with my broadband connection gone walkies; it seemed to take forever and a lot of stress to be put right, but here I am only slightly the worse for wear.
I haven't seen this film for several many years and guess it would comfortably fit into the cult viewing category apart from the fact that it is really little-known. It is written and directed by one Martin Donovan, not the actor who started off in Hal Hartley movies, but the pseudonym for an Argentinian-born writer who co-wrote this screenplay with 26-year old David Koepp, who has gone on to write the latest Indiana Jones spectacular. But enough of that; what about the film? It is set in contemporary Buenos Aires, where it was filmed in English, and stars Colin Firth of all people as a more than repressed repertory movie theatre owner. (If nothing else this film would appeal to me for all the movie paraphenalia on display and the movie games that Firth's character Adrian likes to play.) Set shortly after the traumatic days of political turmoil in Argentina, Firth's ploy is to pretend that he is English as one way of removing himself from the unpleasantness of those days.
He lives in an apartment block peopled with grotesques from whom he tries to keep his distance, but financial pressures (his Mum is dying in hospital) force him to look for a flatmate and into his life comes dishy Hart Bochner's Jack. Jack is everything (on the surface) that Adrian is not -- outgoing, friendly with all the neighbours, and too willing to try to be whatever Adrian would like him to be. It is not long before we discover his true and rather sinister background as a government assassin, but this does not prepare us for the inconsistencies of Adrian's behaviour or the very strong and very weird ending. Definitely one to seek out, although as far as I know it is not yet on DVD; this is something of a pity, since my copy is an edit-down from the original theatrical release which I would love to see.
1 comment:
Colin Firth bck in '89 before he had to do what the box office told him probably - now that'd be worth something.....
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