Pitumisio

My Blueberry Nights reminds me of a beautiful but brainless girl I went out with.

This was a 90-minute Norah Jones' music video saved only by Strathairn, Weisz and Portman's effort to do what's best for their petty roles. No screenplay, no direction, and no concept in a shallow movie where their performance and the visuals are the only thing worth the money paid, this movie is a big pretentious fake -not too surprising from this overrated director. Jude Law's name is in the movie credits but did absolutely nothing on screen to earn that.

Gotta love people who write grammar-school-homework summaries of movies...

There's no sight of Woody Allen's gifted hand when stereotypes are squeezed into a script. I don't know about others but Bardem and Cruz are merely playing themselves -to perfection it has to be said.

Certainly one of WA's smallest efforts and despite Rebecca Hall's excellent performance, this movie could only be praised by undemanding audiences oblivious to any factual idea about Spain, Catalunya or Barcelona.

P.S.: La Sagrada Familia, the Gaudi church, is so full of cranes it looks more like a construction site. In the movie the beauty of this church is all due to Santo Loquasto's skill.

A realistic portrayal of the impoverished suburbia of Lima, Peru is the frame-set for this fantastic story. Fausta, daughter of a woman raped by terrorists some 25 years ago, assists her mother's death and decides to take her remains back to her hometown, in the high Andes. But, apart from having to work hard to collect the money she needs for it, Fausta has a reason, deep inside, that prevents her from enjoying life or accepting her outstanding physical beauty as a normal girl.

Mastery at low-budget cinematic skill should be credited to Bollywood (the Mumbai-based Hindi language film industry) films, which may not be the most groundbreaking in technical or screen writing terms, but contain music in the form of song-and-dance numbers woven into the script in order to appeal to all segments of the audience and maximise box office receipts. Since Hollywood's multi-million budgets would never have helped shoot realistic and colourful, but rough Brazilian imagery, 'Central Station' (1998) and 'Cidade de Deus' (2002) garnered indisputable acclaim at renowned film festivals after being funded on their own. The example set by off-Hollywood movie makers' efforts have become heroic in countries where movie industry budgets are, to say the least, scarce.

This is the case for LTA. It could have been more on par to Danny Boyle's 'Slumdog Millionaire' if it wasn't for the Peruvian-Spanish meagre budget available to Peruvian young director Claudia Llosa. If you expect to see acting beaus or beautés, famous screenwriters and crew, expensive car explosions or CGI, go elsewhere. LTA is neat magic-realism, a territory where people may be poor but not disgusting, where their houses are mere recreation centres for fantasy and everyday life to play happily together. Only time will tell if the trend keeps up, spreads globally, and ends up being called Globbywood.

This is a well-told tale of hope where only two professional actors are involved. And this was as clear to Berlinale judges as it is for the general public -those with a thirst for veritable, honest, witty craftsmanship at film-making.