Los árboles mueren de pie

I read this book when I was a kid and I saw the play twice. Los Árboles Mueren de Pie is a great story about the importance of doing whatever it takes to see your loved ones happy.

My love for this great story from Casona triggered my decision to see this movie. Although I don't usually like Mexican cinema, I gave it a chance, knowing that it would be free of all the lame clichés that you see in 95% of Mexican movies. Also, I enjoyed El Estudiante, Girault's opera prima.

The movie espects the original plot of the book, and some actors really do a good job (Roberto D'Amico and Carlos Aragón's performances are remarkable). But the problem with this movie is that the lead character is played by Jaime Camil (another case of a Mexican pretty face whose path into stardom was sponsored by daddy's green bills and by Televisa's plastic star factory, but has no talent at all).

Also, the movie makes the terrible mistake of trying to convince us that is set on the 1940s, but we see present day elements THHROUGHOUT THE WHOLE MOVIE, something that clearly downgrades the quality of the production, direction, set decoration, or whoever was in charge of that department.

All these mistakes are kind of overshadowed with the ending of the movie, which was really well accomplished by Girault, leaving you with the same bittersweet feeling that you get when you read the book or see the play.