Sumas y restas

I did a term paper on "2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY" for sophomore college ENGLISH, SUMAS y RESTAS, really deserves one of its own! After having lived in Colombia for 36 years and 3 close brushes with death, the only way to review it is with some brief insight into the dynamics of crime and violence here in Colombia..

....But FIRST: Let us FOCUS on the Title's Content and Context:

Just Where to begin with this Unusual early 21st CENTURY Colombian look at Criminal Elements from a rather unique and original perspective!?!? Isn´t it rather strange that oftentimes people are reluctant to give me a platform for sharing my take on this keenly important Colombian hot-button topic!?!?!? Fortunately, I am not one of those who sees Conspiracy Theories looming wherever I should happen to cast my glance! Otherwise I might hint at some confluence of sinister embedded elements allying themselves for the perpose of excercising precisely some subtle form of censorship!!!

Most Colombians either A)Have been the victims of violence themselves or B)Have family member(s), close relative(s) and/or good friend(s) who have been victims...EVERYONE ELSE has aquaintances, neighbors, classmates and co-workers galore who have experienced violence directly. Undoubtedly, it has ebbed from its 80's+90's peak, but it's still an everyday fact of life people have learned to live with. One factor, only dealt with rather obliquely in the film, is that violence can originate from so many different sources; organized crime, leftist guerrillas, paramilitary groups, common criminals, corrupt police officials or any one of the above, masquerading as one of the others! The kidnappers in the film identify themselves as F-2 agents (Think: DEA), but their true origin is never revealed. More often than not, this mirrors reality in Colombia. Still, for the record, at least 95% of Colombians never collaborate in any way with any of these factions! SUMAS seems to be a bit uneven during its initial 40 minutes, but it most certainly had me mesmerized throughout its final hour!!! I'm sad to admit, this was a gritty, spot-on slice of the Dark Side of Colombian life. My Compadre, CouchDog (whose review is #1--Please read it!) says,"The non-stop profanity is not translated in the English subtitles..." I concur! The reason: Movies are usually translated by people officially sanctioned/licensed by the Colombian government, so they went from "Scarface" to "Paleface". But Colombian sociopaths are known for incessant obscenity; it's unfortunate this was lost in translation. The ending minute(?) was butchered or oddly altered in some way, causing me to lower my rating from 9********* to 8********.

WARNING: Lots of naked, gyrating Colombian ladies!

Any comments, questions or observations, in English o en Español, are welcome!

Some times I heard negative comments about this movie. People who dislike it, argue that we have already seen lots of histories like this one before. And it might be true, but it is exactly what gives me a point of reference to judge this production objectively.

Many things have been said about drug trafficking, but I have never seen a closest approach to the essence and the beginning of the problem. An extraordinary representation of Medellín in the 80's, whit every little detail. Once more, Gaviria leads whit natural actors, obtaining great results on the interpretation of this complicated roles that in my opinion can not really be played by professional or foreign actors, as we could see what recently happened whit Unax Ugalde in Rosario Tijeras.

If you think you know every thing about drug dealing, or if you are Colombian and think that it is a distant problem, or you think it is not your problem, why don't you take a look at this really interesting movie, and by the way give a little support to Víctor Gaviria, that after almost three years whit many budget problems, could finish in great way whit this film.

Besides the fact that – once more – a film about Colombia uses as its only resort the many times told story of Medellin's drug related violence during the 1980's, the film's unfortunate failing is the lack of adequate technical resources. If one can survive the monotony of unintelligible and intense sound, wild camera movements and jumpy edition, it is possible to recognize that Gaviria does succeed in insufflating credibility into the characters represented by natural actors, and does well in grasping the mood of the historic moment in which the plot takes place.

The story – specially the first thirty minutes – is utterly predictable and unbearably dull. The slang all along is unnecessarily heavy and boring. Despite all this, at the end one can have the vague sensation that, thanks to the interesting touch of realism and to the good job in actors' direction, the time spent in watching the movie was not completely wasted.