Rosario Tijeras

Rosario is the personification of the girl from the low barrios of Medellín-Colombia (ej. Comuna nor-oriental). Rosario is the kind of girl who knows how to survive the world where she was born, places of violence and drugs and basically no love, until she's given the same poison she use to give. Flora Martinez characterizes Rosario in a wonderful way. Some things that don't go well with this film are the coincidence in musical theme with Maria full of grace and some repeated scenes in car over the same bridge. However, I recommend you read Jorge Franco's original book where this movie was adapted from (www.jorge-franco.com). This is the best Colombian movie since Maria full of grace.

This movie has an interesting, albeit somewhat formulaic, film-noir story as its foundation.

However, the movie ended up being too tedious to watch because of the excessively long segments devoted to hammering the same message time and again.

For instance, the wake and burial of one of the characters includes some creative twists---but ends up taking ~40 minutes of the film, so long before it moves on people in the audience start checking their watches.

This could have been of "City of god" caliber, but will never be. I'm not sure why it reached such a cult status in Colombia.

In 1989, in Medellin, the prostitute and killer Rosario Tijeras (Flora Martínez) has an affair with the playboy Emilio (Manolo Cardona) and is introduced to his best friend Antonio (Unax Ugalde) in a night-club. The relationship of Rosario with Emilio is limited to sex and she befriends Antonio, who is in love with her. After the death of her brother Jonhefe (Rodrigo Oviedo), Rosario and Antonio become closer and she falls in love for him. But Rosario is chased by her enemies from the past.

I had a great expectation for this movie based on the awards highlighted on the cover of the DVD but after watching it, it became a huge disappointment. The plot has a promising beginning, mostly because of the erotic scenes with the sexy Flora Martínez and her naked body. Her mysterious character is intriguing in the beginning. However, the dull story goes nowhere and I had trouble to write a summary since nothing happens but a silly triangle of love in the landscape of the underworld of Medellin in a messy soap-opera. The characters are awfully developed: for example, Rosario Tijeras is one of the most ambiguous characters I have ever seen. Is she an expensive prostitute and a killer, and also a drug-dealer or what? Where is her money charging large amounts for sex and murders? She seems to be a powerful and cold woman in the beginning, but she is disclosed extremely fragile like a housewife along the story. Is the upper-class Emilio just a playboy? And who is Antonio? Why are these guys connected to the underworld of drugs? The celebration with the dead body of Jonhefe is funny but totally out of the context. The dinner at Emilio's home is another terrible moment of this forgettable flick. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Rosario Tijeras"

I went to go see this movie this summer in my visit to Colombia. I was completely under the movie's spell, went to see it twice. The character is so raw, so corrupted, but they demonstrate the beauty that can come from someone who's lived in her own hell. My family is originally from Colombia, so I understand the situations well. I saw a comment on a message board here saying that she wasn't a convincing hit-man...obviously you aren't familiar with the situations in Colombia, I've known of many female hit men that were beautiful...they just grew up in the wrong neighborhoods. Beauty isn't only found in the high-class society...it's everywhere, and if anything, her beauty gives her even more power. The fact that the movie goes back and forth, always returning the beginning of everything, and relating it to the end keeps you in tuned, its clever that the director chose not to point out the changes in time throughout the film...it keeps it flowing...no interruptions from the world that this movie has sucked you in. The main character has such a beautiful pain within her, you come out of the theater in love with her...whether you're are a man or woman..she'll dazzle you. The actors in this movie did an incredible job as well.

Overall, this movie mixes the drama of life, and laughs at it at some points. You're guaranteed to cry, laugh, gasp, claw your nails in your seat...and come out replaying all the scenes in your head.

Just saw this movie in Buga, Colombia. Not being a native speaker it was a bit hard for me to understand all the dialogues - especially the street slang of the hired killers. In my opinion Unax Ugalde did a very good acting job, but then again I didn't notice his poor paisa accent. The first part really was excellent. I loved the way the movie jumped back and forward in time, which added greatly to the suspension. It's a pity that the movie seemed to loose some of its direction in the second half. Still a memorable picture, and hopefully it'll get the international distribution it deserves. Does anybody know if there's a release planned in Europe or elsewhere?