Viudas

It was a strange movie. I could not believe the story at the end. I was hoping there must be a twist and the younger woman was not the lover. However, Adela had been having an affair with the husband and Adela had her baby at the end. It is a horrible story. I do not think there is anything educational about this part. Black humor? It was not really funny. The gay maid was funny. Is this comedy? If I try to understand, the wife is old. Once her husband dies, the wife will be alone. So it may be better for her to have a daughter like Adela. Adela have a baby, so the wife can have a grandchild, so the wife will never be alone. But still it is a strange story.

A drama with a light touch of comedy, excellent production by the brothers, a simple and direct approach to betrayal, mourning, forgiveness and generosity, highlighting the supporting characters Justine (transvestite housekeeper, I don't know if that would be the appropriate term) and the sincere friend and assistant Esther, they guarantee the lightness of heavy themes, with a really pleasant script that makes us smile sincerely at the painful pity of the protagonists... Fun, exciting and questioning...

Before dying, Augusto asks his wife, Elena, to take care of his young lover, Adela. From then on, the two women try to play the game as best they can: Elena dedicates herself to her work as a documentary filmmaker and avoids the presence of Adela, who finds a way to console herself by trying to learn about the life of her love through the person who was his "legitimate" wife.

As you may well presume, this is a drama, although "drama" is not en English acceptable word for what you will experience through this movie.

The movie starts in a very low tone, with the dead of the main husband, the one that is then suffered through the eyes of the widow, and... well, the young lover, to this point everything is good and understandable, a very well made first moments, but then... well, the movie keeps on showing us the grief, the pain, crying and more crying, suffering and constant disrespect between all the characters and up to that point, it becomes a moot point, you will suffer through the whole movie if you think you can endure it.

The movie is dark, very dark, painful and on top of it all the atmosphere is dreadful and filled with hopeless moments, the soundtrack doesn't help either and became the most annoying factor about this whole fiasco, it's just plain horrible, insipid and uninspired and only does a good job of putting the viewer on the hopeless mood even more.

The main problem with this movie is that all the characters takes the situation far too seriously, there are almost no fun moments and the balance of the whole thing is so bad that you will feel bad about the whole thing if you are brave enough to finish it.

Well, I finished it just for the sake of doing this review, the ending scene is far from good, it's horrible, even when good things are supposed to be happening the director does not want us to feel it, or does not know how to, this is because the script is tedious as hell.

Well, you get my point, this is not a good movie. Argentina has far more better cinema than this.... sorry, but this is just for people who really like to be depressed or enjoy seeing people being treated bad on screen.

3 out of 10.

'Viudas' is an Argentine movie, so that's to say that it's a movie that came from the most intelligent and sensitive country in South America when one thinks about movie industry. Unfortunately, 'Viudas' is a movie that never defines itself. Is it a black romantic comedy? Is this a drama about love and its pains and losses? Well, whatever the right answer - and that answer must be given by the audience - the outcome is disappointing and unsatisfactory. In fact, 'Viudas' seems like a TV episode in an ordinary soap opera with all the shallowness and weak propositions that is typical in this kind of production. The story concerning the relationship between an old man and a young radio reporter and the discovery of that liaison by the man's wife after his death is treated with almost unrealistic tones and far fetched situations that never involved the audience until the extremely sentimental and routine end. The movie is not so terrible, although its weaknesses. Even here you can find out the sparkle and intensity of movies made in Argentina. The great spotlight here is the hilarious and realistic performance of Rita Cortese.

Graciela Borges was 70 when this movie was made. What a beauty! I find Argentinian women strikingly beautiful. I enjoyed watching this movie, but it won't appeal to the Hollywood audience.