Familia rodante

Pablo Trapero, one of the most recognized directors of the new Argentine cinema, has done three movies: "Mundo Grúa", which I haven't seen and seems to be the best; "El Bonaerense", a tale about a man who becomes a cop; and "Familia Rodante", which is not more than what it proposes.

His second film was characterized by focusing thoroughly in Buenos Aires' reality and the reality of the persons that try to survive there. This is repeated in "Familia Rodante", but with a family, that travels. It's a trip to Misiones, well-known Argentine province; and it is a trip because of a wedding. I don't want to think about the fact of making a two-day trip to come back after some hours and travel for two more days...And there are many members.

With Grandma Emilia (Graciana Chironi), her daughters Marta (Liliana Capurro) and Claudia (Ruth Dobel) travel with their husbands Oscar (Bernardo Forteza) and Ernesto (Carlos Resta), plus the kids of the first ones; Matías (Nicolás López), Gustavo (Raúl Viñona) and Sol (Sol Ocampo), and the daughter of the second ones; Yanina (Marianela Pedano) with her friend Nadia (Leila Gomez). Don't be fooled by the actors' names, just like Carlos Sorin, another master of the new cinema, Pablo Trapero uses non professional actors in his movies, therefore just some of them have done things before, and others, like Graciana Chironi (directly related with the director), have only acted in Trapero's films.

Trapero's magic lies in his camera, in how he cares for his story. A story, in this case, full of situations that I wouldn't like to tell because they occupy the whole movie. And they are wonderful like life itself; and messed up and crazy and even incredible sometimes.

Thinking about life as watching the film, it came to me: We fall in love like the characters do because we feel the same, we laugh out loud because we have experienced the same situations they experienced, or we have seen it. We fight like they do: something more realistic is impossible.

I even believe that Trapero directs so close to reality that we could be watching a documentary.

As it happens with any road movie, road, cars, and landscape are excuses for developing a story; the road chosen could not have been better, landscapes are superb, and the caravan they travel with is a gem on its own!

Each of the 12 people on this caravan had a story to tell and Trapero managed to thread them together very well. True, acting could have been a bit better, but I took it as part of the essence of this movie, adding for a natural freshness of the plot.

Human relationships and family business are taken to the core of this family during the trip with a good balance of drama and comedy. The movie is flooded with touches of Argentinian customs along the movie that also come as a bonus.

Highly recommended movie!

I have to admit that I totally disagree with the unfair comments from the previous viewer as I thoroughly enjoyed watching this film. Obviously if you are a fan of fast pace films, such as American blockbusters, then this film will definitely not be your cup of tea. What this film does is to take an ordinary family out of their natural environment and explores their feelings and emotions. There are conflicts throughout and tension among most of their components. It is a journey of discovery. The fact that Grandmother is invited to a family wedding in Misiones (1,200 kilometres from her home in Buenos Aires) is an excuse for the director to deeply explore and investigate how the characters will react and come to terms with their own feelings. The caravan is a very small environment and it is hard for the family to live in such a close boundary. I did not find this film boring in anyway and I will highly recommend to anyone who is interested in human relationships (including mechanics! Haha). The only disappointing thing is that the subtitles does not always give a true representation of the dialogues from the original language and, if you do not speak Spanish, that may be a daring task to follow.

It had the potential to be a good film but was let down on a few technical aspects.

1. He shouldn't have used too many hand held shots.

2. Should have used film stock rather than electronic. Poor colour separation.

3. Far, far too many close up shots. If you are going to make a 'road film' then its a good idea to see the characters within a location. There were just not enough. Okay, one could argue that he tried to convey a feeling of claustrophobia but we don't need the entire film to tell us it's claustrophobic inside a camper. Surely if it was mad hot they would all want to be outside on every opportunity?

4. The kissing young couple. Sorry but very basic and primitive. It would have been better for them to be seen sneaking off into the woods then we could use our own imagination.

5. The dialogue with non members of the family with other people were few are far between. The only worthwhile example I can recall was the police roadblock and the man with a spare gasket.

There are too many 'road movies' and to stand out from the rest you really do need to be original - this wasn't.

And lastly, I thought it could have been improved with a large injection of humour or real pathos.

Unusual, fresh, entertaining and interesting would be the words to describe this movie. It isn't a classic, but it IS a good watch. As I've never been to Argentina, I think it says a lot about the film's quality that it was able to evoke a strong sense of place, and of Argentinian life, and I felt as if I was there.

I see some of the other commenters have complained there was no development or drama - and to some extent they're right, but they're also missing the point that this movie isn't about thrills and surprises Hollywood-style. It's about one normal family doing something unusual, and how they deal with the various problems that occur on the way. That was incredibly enjoyable, not to mention very involving. Lots of humour, some very moving scenes, great direction and acting - it's all good, really. Highly recommended.