Una sombra ya pronto serás

With the wanderer bleakness of a Sábato's "Héroes y Tumbas" - or better, with the "end of the road" tristesse, gallows-humor and absurdity of Onetti's "Cuando ya no importe" - piense en "Que el ultimo en irse apague la luz" (Montevideo's epitaph spray-painted on a marble wall of the airport) - but with a tanguero's nostaglia, a comradery and heartbreak of lost souls, a Cono Austral vision reminiscent of Hamsun's "Mysterier", of Kafka's "Prozess" (The Trial), but with the light, the perpetual wind, the sunsets, the rustic semi-ghost towns of Pampas, and an absurd, poetic love of life that despite all I suppose places it closer to Fellini - as though life were a concatenation of operatic scenes, mostly "recitativo", but interspersed with intimiate scenes, touching moments of failed dreams and haunting illusions, arias of exquisite beauty - evoked through the eye of an artist: quaint, charming, touching, sensual, eternal, all defining the question of life as a subtle joke. The final artistic trick is the knack of a graceful and timely exit, before the actor and his scene - his role on this stage called "earth" become grotesque. How did Shakespeare put it? And in how many words, how many scenes, how many emotions?

I haven't time to compose a proper critique - whatever - so scribble the above shreds of thought hoping they produce some intuitive vision of the magnificent - but simple, low-budget, humanistic work of art that is this film. I see no way to improve it. I wish there were more like it.

Though how many could I take? At least a year has past, yet I still haven't recovered from "Butterfly" - Jose Luis Cuerda's (Spain) equally simple but abrumadora pelicula. I feel like crying to think of it. "Sombra", on the other hand, I can see (and have seen)again and again and again - savoring many scenes, especially at the end. "Butterfly", I may never watch again - its scars go deep.

I will not give you a summary of the movie as that has already been done above.

I gave it a 3 due to the fact that I was very disappointed by the lost potential of the movie. The basic premise had the makings of an excellent movie, but everything was spoiled by cheesy, predictable situations that never really went anywhere. It is populated with a great deal of two-dimensional characters that do not gain your sympathy in any way. If you have ever seen 'Two Lane Blacktop' starring James Taylor, then you get the idea of what sort of "quality" we're dealing with.

This movie is not one of Argentina's best. Fortunately, within the last ten years, Argentina has begun to produce some excellent movies that will hopefully erase bad ones such as this off the record.

"A Shadow You Soon Will Be" (1994) is based on the Osvaldo Soriano novel "Shadows" (1993), a playfully dark allegory of a man wandering through the wastelands & small towns of Argentina not quite knowing where he's going or how to get there. In his wandering, circular travels he encounters other bizarre individuals similarly wandering in circles.

That's all I'll say about the plot & meaning, because a spoiler would ruin the fun of figuring out what the allegory is about (beware of one of the other reviews which spoils it up front).

The film does a great job of bringing the mood to the screen. It is dreamlike without going into total fantasy territory, bizarre while keeping one foot firmly planted in reality. Not quite as surreal as Terry Gilliam ("Brazil") or Tim Burton ("Big Fish", "Peewee's Big Adventure"), the tone reminded me of the Russian scifi road epic "Kin-Dza-Dza" or the Buñuel classic "Exterminating Angel" both of which center around a normal protagonist immersed in an abnormal world, bound by strange rules that are never explained and never questioned.

The special effects are minimal, so don't expect Walt Disney's latest "Alice in Wonderland", but this is very much a Wonderlandian story, full of oddball characters and seemingly nonsensical circumstances which actually have meaning if you dig deep. My favorite character is the jolly ex-circus owner who drives around in circles scamming free gas and occasionally playing card games where he bets his memories. Another interesting oddball is the stoic millionaire obsessed with beating the casino even though he obviously has more than enough money for a dozen lifetimes.

And although I said there are no flashy special effects, that doesn't mean there aren't tremendous visuals. The opening scene of a broken down, abandoned train in the middle of the desert (which our hero steps off) is masterfully shot. As well, the deep landscapes of desolation are absolutely majestic (I do wish they would remaster this in HD one day). With respect to landscapes it reminded me of the 2001 film "Piedras Verdes" ("Green Stones") about a girl wandering through the desert trying to find life's answers. Or maybe the 2nd half of Wim Wender's excellent "Until the End of the World" (1991) about a group of colorful characters living in the Australian desert after an apocalyptic event.

If you like slow-paced & challenging, yet fun, movies that warp your grasp of reality, give "A Shadow You Soon Will Be" a go. Watch the film, try to figure out the allegory being presented to you, and then read the other review with the spoilers explaining things (or better yet, read the book).