Roma

This movie is Aristarain's best in my humble opinion, what a beatiful picture.

After un lugar en el mundo and Martin Hache. I was very much looking forward to the new Aristarain movie. Unfortunately the weakest points for the previous here fill out an entire feature length film of a gratingly long 130 minutes. Characters have no other depth than proliferating themselves by talking about their favorite classic/jazz musicians and literary figures. They do not explain what meaning or experience they find in these. just referring to them must convince the viewer that these characters must be very intellectual. Of course the effect is that they come across as very hollow, pretentious and rather unpleasant. Thbe only character that wins the viewer's sympathy probably is Roma, Joaca's mother. Her views are fresh and yet heartwarming. Perhaps it was the intention of Aristarain to alienate the viewer from any emotional bonding with these antipathetic characters, in that case he succeeded. What is truly a structural flaw of the film, not just of taste, is the way the story is told, if one can call it a story. There are just flashbacks which do not seem to follow from one to the next. Characters suddenly take meaning to other characters without any explanation. In the end the film becomes a mess, and I could not even finish watching it. Aristarain is crossed of my list of favorite directors. I hope he'll turn the tide with a next, better, film.

I stumbled upon "Roma" a few nights ago on the HBO Latin channel. I seldom watch Spanish programming, but when I clicked on the program grid for some information on the film, I saw the movie's locale was Buenos Aires. My parents were portenos from Buenos Aires and I have been to Buenos Aires a few times, most recently last October, so I decided to watch.

The movie itself did not impress me. It was "ok"...a talky character study. Not a bad movie, but nothing out of the ordinary either. But...I enjoyed the movie immensely because the actors spoke just as my parents spoke, in the Argentine "porteno" dialect of Buenos Aires. It was like going back to my childhood. I speak Spanish reasonably well (but English is my "first" language) and I hear people speaking Spanish all the time at work, but they are not from Argentina. As soon as the movie started and I heard the actors speaking, I could tell is was that old familiar Argentine dialect...the cadence, the inflections, etc., are so unique. I told my sister about the movie...even though she understands little Spanish, I told her to watch or rent this movie if she could because she most likely would be transported back to our childhood as I was.

Elaine Clearwater FL

This movie has been called "the event of the year" in film industry and I am not sure if it is up to this statement. Of course Aristarain knows what he is doing, the cast is really good (even Botto, whom I hated in "Martin (hache)"), photography, edition. It is a very beautiful product indeed. But the plot seemed a bit weak and the pace is quite slow. I didn't get it: if the intention was to pay homage to that great woman that Roma is, it wasn't fair enough, it was too focused on Joaquin; if it was to tell the story of Joaquin, the I couldn't see the point, because I don't think it was a deep story, with any turning point; then, if Aristarain was trying to show the history of Argentina, he was quite vague and used too many time jumps. Finally, if he was trying to do all three things, he of course was being too ambitious! I'm sure a lot of people was waiting for Aristarain's next movie. Will they be pleased? I really don't know. Maybe he reached his peak with "Un lugar en el mundo". What I'm quite sure about is that, if this film was the event of the year, I will be very disappointed in Argentinian film till 2005.

I happened to watch this film on "the small screen" in Spanish, which was somewhat of a challenge. My linguistic limitations notwithstanding, I felt intrigued enough to put in the effort to follow the dialogue, pacing, and emotional pull. I have not seen other works by this director, but felt rewarded for my time. It was refreshing to see a film discuss philosophy and intellectual points in the context of a Latin American family. The plot revolves around a mother and son through time, utilizing media references such as scenes from the film Grapes of Wrath to embellish this central theme. I enjoyed revisiting the 60s and 70s in Roma, the classical lines and designs, Jazz and literature references. A thinking person's film, regardless of one's language capacity.