Dulce de leche (literally, milk marmalade) is a staple of Argentinian breakfasts, where it is consumed on bread; in its home version, it is made slowly cooking milk and sugar in a copper pot until the mix thickens and turns light brown. It is also widely used in pastries and cakes. Dulce de leche is the key to a couple of scenes in this film, hence the title.
The movie concerns adolescents Anita (Ailin Salas) and Lucho (Camilo Cuello Vitale), that live and attend high school in Ramallo, a sleepy agricultural town on the Paraná River 240 km northwest from Buenos Aires. Anita lives with her parents and Lucho with his mother and her second husband, both families comfortably middle class. Anita and Lucho's relationship begins as a standard teenager crush, but it gradually develops into an intense, obsessive, somewhat unhealthy liaison. Parents and teachers are basically decent people and try to make sense, mostly without success, of a situation that is getting gradually out of hand.
The ending is somewhat hopeful, although the problem remains far from solved, or even completely understood.
The acting is excellent. Salas has the right combination beauty/charisma that makes Lucho's infatuation with her credible. Cuello Vitale's acting is at the same level. Director Mariano Halperin moves the action with good pacing and makes use of country locations with taste. A movie worth watching.
