Soñar no cuesta nada

When i hear about that Verónica Orozco was in a film called "Soñar no cuesta nada" well... i say...good! But then, i hear about the plot... well, i was not so informed about the case. Then i saw it... and i really think the movie is very good. A good proposal for the movies of my country.

The story talks about a group of soldiers that discovers a lot of money from an armed illegal group. They takes it. Based on a trues story that happens not so long time in Colombia, "Soñar no cuesta nada" is a movie of desire and feelings.

Here, much people has ideas and opinions about the lucky of those soldiers, well, you must know that the movie don't express any opinion about what happens. The movie just tell us about the facts and don't have any opinion about it. So, in this way the movie is good.

For other way, is a shame that some of the actors (a problem of all the movies of all the world) must to have the same people that we see in many films or in TV. But there is a thing that change me an opinion about one of the actors, Diego Cadavid. And is about his performance. I think now he is a good actor. Because as the paper of a soldier who want a "good" life with all the money, and he wants his money! A good topic of desire.

Please, this is a commentary of the film, i don't write anything about the events or the people who was involved in it. This is a good film with really good performances. See it when you can!!! And if you like great dances of beautiful women... you won't be sorry. I mean... Verónica Orozco is there... you want other reason?

*Sorry for the mistakes... well, if there any

Four soldiers deep in the jungle find a massive cache of millions of dollars. There is so much money, in fact, that they can't keep it hidden and can't even carry it off by themselves, with the rest of the battalion eventually catching wind of it and subsequently sharing it out among the soldiers.

The rest of the film is more or less the pedestrian types of problems you'd expect would arise in such a situation. There's some mutual distrust, there's one ethical soldier who wants to report it, there's the irresponsible overspending and flaunting of the cash.

Apparently it's based on a true story and the story really tells itself. The very situation is fascianting enough to elicit curiosity in the non-wealthy - what would you do if you suddenly got half a million dollars?

The endings are rather predictable and Marzquez-esque in tone, but lacking in the social commentary or timelessness of that author's short stories.

Good production values, a great song, excellent acting and casting. Definitely worth a watch.

Honourable Mentions: Mosquito Coast (1986). A crazy scientist escapes modern life in the jungle but can't quite make his dreams of development a reality. Most of this movie was also set deep in the Colombian jungle.

"Soñar no cuesta nada" was based on the true story of more than 140 Colombian soldiers who found an illegal fortune belonging to the FARC guerrillas in the middle of the jungle and who, instead of informing about it, decided to keep the money for themselves. As you can imagine, most of them spent it far too fast and far too naively.

All of this originally happened back in 2003 and now most of the real soldiers are on the run, with a few either turning themselves in or having been captured, and a couple of them ending up dead as a door nail. The story caused a rather public controversy in Colombia, which continues even after most of the captured soldiers have been recently sentenced to 3 - 10 years in jail, depending on their specific actions / responsibilities.

That is the true story, as chronicled by the press. The movie is clearly based on it, but adds a considerable amount of fiction to the tale, and even stops a bit short of what really happened (it was made before the sentencing phase, for example).

While none of the characters involved mirror their real life counterparts that closely, the issues at stake are well represented, including the moral and personal sensitivities involved. In that respect, the movie succeeds, aided by a talented cast (by Colombian standards), a remarkable photography work and a very active soundtrack. A reasonably good sense of humor is in it too, though non-Colombians might not catch all the in-jokes and ironies involved (some of which are better than others though). Still, the overall theme of professional duty and honesty versus personal necessities and temptation is universal and remains accessible enough.

As for the ending, I'll simply say this: the final few minutes could have used some more conflict and perhaps a bit less of the sappy stuff. An additional 5 to 10 minutes couldn't have hurt. As it is, things happen a bit too fast and, while the film remains quite interesting in its own right, the final result does tend to simplify the consequences of the soldiers' actions. A good movie, certainly, but it could have been even better. Overall, I give it 7.7/10 or so.

really good movie combines the hilarious with the reality and makes emphasis in how this people sacrifices for this money that was so important for them who needed anyways because if they gave that great amount of money back surely the politics of Colombia would have taken the money for their own goods LOL.......... This makes you stand in the place of this young soldiers who have no good payment and no money, well it is true that is bad to steal what it's not yours but anyways these people found that Money doesn't matter if it was on Colombian territory because if they gave that money back to the government they will only receive a stupid medal and the politicians would've taken all the money and steal it themselves

I have seen the movie, and found it very interesting. It is quite well done, and sound is very good. Usually sound in Colombian movies is very poor, but this movie shows the improvement we have had in this area.

It is worthless to say that the this movie was based upon an actual situation that happened in Colombia a few years ago.

As one of the commenter told previously, the story within the movie moves very fast and by the end of it, you feel you were not in the cinema for more than 10 minutes. This is good. This is an indicator for a very good movie, in which you feel not the time going by… but it also indicates that the Director should have add a few more minutes to get deep within the characters personalities -which is a minus of this production- characters are shown very briefly.

I have scored with 8, more thinking in the enormous work that would have been the production of this movie, rather than how deeply it is.