La cordillera

I really liked La Cordillera (The summit). Political thriller is not the most usual subject in Argentina's filming. Just for this, this deserves a lot of recognition. The script is intense, very touching. Maybe some viewers will feel as if there were some minutes missing...but whenever you think about the film, this grows. I enjoyed the director so much...the "Cordillera de los Andes" that gives the film a name...is a silent Main protagonist. Beautiful, fascinating, incredible. In the middle of nowhere, some crucial meeting among south American presidents is being held. Darin is superb as usual, as the Argentina's President. for the reluctant, I suggest you to give The Summit a chance.

Wow my very first title review and the first review too! The film is the third work by Argentinian director Santiago Miter. The political thriller talks about a meeting of South American government leaders in a hotel in Andes (cordillera). The presidents meet in a secured place to conclude a new alliance of oil-producing countries.

As the main figure will be the Argentinean President Hernán Blanco presented. His name (in Spanish white) indicates his purity, which he also used in the election campaign. Right from the beginning, this purity is shattered as he learns that his soon-to-be ex-son-in-law intends to make information public about machinations in financing his election campaign. The daughter has been in a psychiatric treatment since some time. In the light of her husband's last plans, caring father lets his daughter to be brought to the summit hotel. The unhealed traces gain the upper hand over her there, and she gets entangled. The father lets a renowned psychiatrist brought into the hotel to help her quickly. The doctor proposes to treat the daughter by hypnosis. However, he will not be allowed to treat the patient alone. So learns the president from the room next door, as the daughter tells a disastrous story in the hypnosis. The surprised president informs the doctor that the story happened before daughter's birth. Another shadow clouds over the president and the ominous history from the past urges the president to let the further treatment be abrupted. So the psychiatrist may not even say good bye to his patient.

The president is being succumbed to political action and has to cope with it in his favor and in favor of his country while dealing parallel with personal issues from the past and the present. At this point the movie slows with the tension and deals bit too much with father-daughter relationship.

So to avoid spoilers have a look yourself. It is not as breathtaking movie as views of Andes there, but still worth to see.

"La Cordillera" (aka The Summit) is a decent well done flick. But once again (this happening a bit too much lately with local films) I leave the cinema with the uncomfortable feeling that much more could have been done and that if all that was necessary had been done, this title would raise vertically to masterpiece category. All in all, La Cordillera has several aims. One of them is representing politicians for what they actually are: a piece of s**t, and this aim is completely achieved. But short of that, it delves further into a parallel captivating paranormal story, that unfortunately is left without a proper resolution. I can understand the purpose of the director and the writers behind this missing piece; however the same effect could have been reached with the proper work. Oddly enough, and this is something indeed rare, this film which is 1 hour and 54 minutes long, falls short of length: in my personal opinion, this should have been a 3 hour film. I want to highlight the work of one of the two writers, Mariano Llinás, because his style (which I like a lot) is undoubtedly present here. There are two very good films he directed, "Balnearios" and "Historias Extraordinarias" I never forget about, although the latter declines somewhat in the second half. Only good scripts can be expected by this writer, and in the end and with the necessary polishing, extraordinary films are due. La Cordillera will have your attention all the two hours long.

Potent political and personal challenges merge for Hernan Blanco, newly elected President of Argentina, at a regional summit in Chile. A self-proclaimed representative of the people, Hernan deals with shadowy figures, pursues secret agendas with other Latin American leaders and leads a double life that surprises even his daughter Marina. The growing distance between Marina and her father resembles the divide between leader and country, and between Hernan and the image of himself. In one of my favorite Hawthorne stories, the Birthmark, a man with good intentions convinces his wife to drink a tonic that he claims will improve her appearance as well as their relationship. She drinks it only because she loves him. The potion works, but it removes her real essence and proves, alas, he did not love her in return. "Were I weaker and blinder" she says, "it might be happiness." So too with Hernan, Marina and the people of Argentina. Hernan is pushing potions and illusions for others to swallow. Many people try to cast such spells, not just politicians like Hernan, and this film sheds some light on the practice of deception. The theme is intriguing. As a traveler to Brazil and possessor of political science and law degrees, I thought I could easily understand and appreciate the political trash talk and allusions but forward by the Latin American leaders. I was wrong. It is more difficult than I imagined. The matter is further complicated because I do not know Spanish and had to follow the captions at the bottom of the screen. Ricardo Darin (Hernan) does a wonderful job portraying the dignity, posture, arrogance and measured, calculating voice of a world leader. The mountain views of Chile are fantastic but limited. The film did not go into as much depth as I prefer, but overall it is a plausible, compelling glimpse into what goes on at the top levels of power. Seen at the Miami Film Festival.

I really don't know what is the real purpose to make this movie. Why we have to involve so many Latin American nations and send all of their presidents to Chile, in the harsh winter and hold a so-called meeting in a resort like hotel on top of the mountain? And what's the purpose this Argentina president insists his daughter to join him there. The screenplay did not clearly develop the conspiratorial scandal this president is facing, only vaguely shows us in some dubious dialog that the husband of his daughter's husband will expose some dirty laundry this president is trying to hide from the people. Having a daughter who is in an unstable mental condition and disrupts his important meeting is such stubborn decision and stupid arrangement that maybe Donald Trump would do.

I really don't know how to categorize this going-nowhere almost clueless film. What is the real purpose of making this film? A political thriller? I don't think so. An unsolved murder mystery? A hallucination of a president's daughter? What is the real purpose this movie like us to view?

Christian Slater played an obnoxious American political peddler in this film with some over-the-top exaggeration with lot of unfit gestures and body language just wanted to give us an impression of how arrogant American policy maker is even during a back room negotiation. This film also wanted to let us know the Mexican president is the mouthpiece of the American government. But regretfully, when you forced yourself to sit through watching this film, expecting something might fully be explained in the end with your patience almost vaporized, what you got in the end is just a big NADA.

You don't need to go through this like me to get nothing out of it. A complete waste of your time.