La niña en la piedra

I'm not sure what to think of this film. The first 80 minutes or so of the film were perfect and haunting, kind of like a Mexican take on GEORGE WASHINGTON. The film shows a sleepy Mexican village that seems to be decaying and a group of boys that decide to take revenge on a popular school girl. I have to say that the film lost me with the KITTEN'S SCREAM towards the end. Those who see the film will know what I'm talking about, and I got to hear it in full blown surround sound which was not pleasant. It is here that the film takes a turn towards the dark side and it seems that the filmmaker seems to be exploring the themes of the Evil that underlies this small town, similar to what David Lynch did in Blue Velvet. However I was a bit perplexed. Is there something more going on here. The film begins with a mythic image of a father and son discovering an ancient statue of a corn God stuck in the mud and then throwing it into a deep swamp. There seems to be issues of race and class as well. The girl who is victimized is light skinned and the boy who is mistreated and taken advantage of, clearly has Indian features. I was hoping someone would be able to clarify some of the difficult questions this film raises. I also felt that the director let the sound designer get out of control. The first half of the film was perfect and naturalistic, but the sound design became more abstract and disturbing, something which I felt worked counter to the subtle work the cinematographer and the wonderful work the actors were achieving.

The place is a small town in Mexico. I seem to remember a reference to the state of Moroles in the credits. The principal subjects are teenagers in school. The ingredients of the drama are the growing interest of boys and girls in each other, a few unsavory bullies, and a large stone that may be an archaeological find. The stone does have a role to play.

The story develops slowly at first. It's time for us to get to know the multiple characters. Eventually the pace accelerates to a dramatic crescendo.

The young actors are well cast and have good performances. The atmosphere of a small Mexican town is nicely captured. The actors do a nice job of portraying the simplicity of the town's folks, farmers and small landowners.