La señal

I went watch this flick with the expectation of recreating the Argentine of the fifties -an Argentine long forever gone-. I was born at the beginning of the 60's and had the opportunity to meet quite a prosperous country. Quite different from the piece of s**t that military first and politicians afterward (especially the latter), made of it. So, all in all, the film kept me quite expectant in my seat; not that I fulfilled any of my expectations, because -let's admit it- it is incredibly difficult to make such recreation, and it was not done at all. The camera takes are without exception quite narrow, focused on some part of an old building, rarely letting the sky be seen, and on a very nice fleet of collectible old cars (that MUST have been expensive!). But again, let's be fair, only Hollywood multimillionaire budgets can accomplish such thing. Now for the script: The script is quite mediocre. To such extent that it is unpredictable because it just ends at an unpredictable point, a point at which you could have added one more hour of excellent script. This is definitely not "El Aura". "El Aura" -I got comment on it- is film noire at its absolutely best and you should see it. This one... it can be watched. But only if there's something about the film that interests you beforehand. Else pass.

This is the second Argentine Noir film I see this year (along with "The Mudboy") but I think this film has been completely overrated, that leaves much to desired, argumentative but also artistically.

The film is basically what we all know form a Noir film: a depressed and decadent detective which nevertheless shows great aptitude for the work; the lady in troubles, rich and mysterious that always seems to be hiding more than what she says, the always loyal and always more optimistic companion and of course "The Mafia," but what I say! If even the junior assistant who handled the car and reveals the photographs appears, well I have seen this on every film of this kind, no surprises here nor will be ahead in the movie. But then the rest of the film is a lot of confusion and turns of the plot quite clumsy, as, for example, the main character that is shown to us as a very Shrewd men and suddenly becomes nothing else but a clueless fool.

I believe, however, that the worst sin is perhaps not to take the chance to portray Argentine society in those troubled years, with all that money spent in all those cars an costumes.

The end is really surprising, but not because we do not expect that kind of end but, I think, because it is surprising that all ends there.

I think the movie tries to show how facts from the standpoint of the main character no matter if the doubts are clear or not.

But leaves you with more questions than answers and the impression that the film bite more of what could chew and in the end you keep specking what it is never going to come.

Best luck next time for Darin, which by the way gave a good performance but at times it felt into the confusion of his character, Peretti was relatively well in his semi-comic sidekick, but Julieta Diaz steals the screen with a character very much in his step, no vulnerable blonds but a center-minded passionate Brunette.

One of Argentina's most expensive films is a really horrible one, where *NOTHING* works well.

The script is extremely boring and predictable, with absolutely no turns as you'd expect in the genre (film noir) it is trying to emulate.

The period reconstruction serves NO purpose to the story other than allowing a couple of characters to wear hats. They could have shot it as happening in 2007 and there would not be any difference. Peron, Eva and their politics are mentioned in passing but they play little to no role in the movie.

Darin is horribly cast as the main character. His character is often referred as "The Kid", which makes you think that the character was thought and written for someone in his early eighties, and not in his late forties. It becomes hilarious at one point when a seventeen year old calls him "kid".

Julieta Diaz, who is a mildly attractive and interesting woman, fails completely like the "femme fatal". She lacks the curves, sensuality, acting and good dialog that made, for example, Kim Bassinger's character in LA Confidential such a classic. Peretti starts really ridiculous with some of the most horrible lines in the film but it is the only of the title characters that manages to save face by the end.

The photography is competent but nothing to write home about. There's also several shots that look badly lit and like they were done on video.

The soundtrack is an extremely over the top melodic score that would fit perfectly in any soap opera and makes no sense here.

For those speaking Spanish, another oddity is that all characters speak to each other too respectfully, never calling themselves by name (but by using "usted", "señor" and their last names). This is even true with those that are clearly old friends. While there's no doubt that in older times there was much more courtesy when speaking, the diction used in this movie becomes ridiculous very quickly.

Finally, as far as the title of the movie (The Signal) goes.... everybody will be left wondering, as at no point it becomes clear what that signal is.

It looks more like Darín felt he had to make "La señal" than Darín wanted to do "La señal". Luckily, the film was not made in a rush, but this doesn't mean that it doe looks incomplete. Clearly, Darín felt moved by the project and the idea of paying tribute to the deceased Eduardo Mignona, but he could have helped in many other ways without even sitting in the director's chair. He had collaboration (Martín Hodara), but this is not the movie he had to do as his directing debut, and I'm saying it to defend him.

He's said in interviews lately that he was not completely satisfied with the result, and you can tell why if you watch the film. I'm not saying don't watch it…The story of two detective partners (Darín and Diego Peretti, who's starting to annoy me a bit), "La Señal" captures perfectly the period in which the work and adventures of these men take place (the 50's, time of Peron's government); it has an obscure cinematography that's interesting because it makes us want to look back at movies like France's film-noir and other classic police stories; it has a really good original score and some moments where opera music accentuates the drama immensely and it features a wonderful performance by Darín and an even better work by Julieta Díaz as a 'femme fatale'.

But there are a lot of things on the downside. The script (based on Mignona's homonymous novel an credited as Mignona's but with a lot of other hands in it) is so obvious and contains things that are really out of place and bring nothing to the film; it also creates a moment of tension where the two detectives hint that something ('a sign', the English translation for the title) will change their lives. I, as a passionate viewer, started to wait for that something, for that moment; but I waited in vain because the movie never begins to flow.

Besides, there's a constant depressing tone that makes the characters look as if they were in a trance. Somehow, and this is a bad thing to say, the film manages to pass this feeling on to us and, between the trance and the slow and far from credible development of the investigations, we contemplate the chance of falling asleep.

This is made worse by the fact that there are not many characters and, except for some scenes, Buenos Aires looks like a completely empty city…Like if the only characters that have to be in a certain place at a certain time are there; but nobody else exists.

I'm sure Mignona's widow and family must be proud with the result of "La señal", but I hope that when Darín sits on the director's chair again, he chooses something better…Much better.