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.

Every year at least during the last decade, Argentinian cinema comes up with a single film that is superlative in many ways. Just back to 2014 we had Relatos Salvajes (Wild tales, Foreign film Academy Award nominee), The Clan (2015, this one to a lesser extent), El ciudadano ilustre (The distinguished citizen, 2016), and this year La cordillera, by Santiago Mitre. Mitre, still really young, is on his path to claim his spot beside the greatest contemporary Argentinian filmmakers such as Juan Jose Campanella and Damian Szifron.

This was Mitre's first super-production and he succeeded in coming up with something absolutely ambitious. The fact of the film's scale, it's remarkable cast (best national actors by far- Ricardo Darin, Erica Rivas, Gerardo Romano- and great foreign ones- Christian Slater, Elena Anaya) made it highly expected by the big commercial audience, but Mitre has surprised everyone with something so big in it's universal themes (power, greed, corruption) but yet subtle, full of metaphors

and without a closure to the story, which is what the average cinema goer expects. Hence the mixed reviews, popular reaction and the widely spread notion that the film stays half way or that's slow and boring. It can be a really uncomfortable film for some people, it makes one think and in general people go to the cinema just for entertainment.

The pace of the film it's perfect. Neither too slow nor to fast, it allows one to keep thinking about what's there or what's not. I guess it's more enjoyable if someone has interest and knowledge in politics but as I said above what really matters is the universality of the themes that are dealt with throughout the movie.

The only weakness I can find is the inclusion of President Blanco's daughter played by Dolores Fonzi. Even though then I realised this was merely with the purpose of exploring more in depth Blanco's personality and morality, I hardly find Dolores Fonzi credible (I can only recall 2013 "El critico" as an exception). In the long run and after figuring out the reason of her inclusion it didn't really matter. Everyone who's more thoughtful than the average can have a different interpretation of the events or possible outcomes.

It blew my mind.

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.

"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.

Although the movie had some individual not bad elements such as acting, music/atmosphere, photography, the total turned to be really boring and without a central meaning/direction, having mixed a very weak political case with a stronger -but again weak- psychological issue of the president's daughter. You were always waiting for something excited, which never came. Either the script was very poor or the director made it so. Perhaps they should have worked with the film a few weeks more...