Picture Show Pundits

Mancora (2008)

Review by Macabre Stalker [Ray Bonilla] :

While there are certain to be any number of comparisons to Alfonso Cuaron's Oscar-nominated Y Tu Mama Tambien, and for good reason, Peruvian director Ricardo de Montreuil's Mancora stands on its own merits. In fact, though I'll likely be in the minority who would deign to diminish the grandeur of the currently much beloved Cuaron, while I enjoyed Y Tu Mama Tambien, I found Mancora the superior film in nearly all facets. The trio of actors Mancora centers on are of an excellent caliber and Jason Day in the lead as Santiago is far and away more captivating and sympathetic in his taciturn and distant introspection than Gael Garcia Bernal's Julio in Y Tu Mama. Additionally, while Cuaron's film (and generally all his films) have a distinct and stimulating visual style, a keen photographic acuity from cinematographer Angelo Milli and some amazing settings make Mancora pop on screen even more. And most importantly, as provocative, entertaining, and ultimately rewarding as Y Tu Mama Tambien might have been, it achieved its somewhat meteoric rise to fame through its pushing of that ominous "envelope". Mancora gets pretty steamy with some of its sexuality (set to a fevered pitch by the beautiful Elsa Pataky, whose easy-going sensuality elevates her to ravishing in this picture), but I found more substance in Santiago's road trip to the titular coastal town in this film and more compelling motivation to his emotional journey and the relationships he forms throughout-- in essence, I cared more about Santiago in this picture than I ever did about Julio or Tenoch in Y Tu Mama Tambien.

Santiago is an embittered youth living a life of immediate pleasures and no forward momentum in Lima, Peru. His father, a semi-famous singer-songwriter for a one-hit wonder band, commits suicide and leaves Santiago's confused emotions embroiled in battle with one another. He decides to escape the doldrums of a Lima winter to the childhood nostalgia of Mancora, a sunny beach town where he and his family spent many a fondly remembered day. Before he can depart, however, his stepsister Ximena (Pataky) calls with her condolences and to say she and her new husband are going to visit him and lend him some comfort. Santiago is annoyed by this intrusion into his very solitary life, but accepts their visit in good grace. Ximena is a glowing and beatific creature that showers Santiago with affection while her husband Inigo (Enrique Murciano) is only very grudgingly present. Santiago tells them they need not worry about consoling him for he is off to Mancora and Ximena proceeds to invite herself along for the ride against Santiago and Inigo's wishes. Both men eventually yield, Santiago because Ximena melts him with her charms and Inigo because he does not want to rock the boat. The trip to Mancora and their days of revelry there reveal a very rocky relationship between Ximena and Inigo, as well as Santiago's many emotional vulnerabilities-- and most importantly an exceedingly difficult to resist attraction between Santiago and his stepsister.

You can imagine how things proceed from there, and there's a lot of meat to what could have devolved into softcore pornography or some kind of crime of passion thriller. There are some lusty turns in the script to be sure, and several moments of anxiety and even violence, but the way the tale unfolds is satisfying and well-written and ends on a note that is ambiguous, but just un-ambiguous enough to be endearing.

Mancora is a superb sophomore effort from Ricardo de Montreuil, whose first film, My Brother's Wife, was a somewhat lukewarm effort by comparison and I am eager to see what the man might have in store for us, especially in this day where Spanish and Latin American directors are the toast of the town and are wholeheartedly embraced by Hollywood as well as critics and audiences the world round. That said, it is Jason Day and Elsa Pataky that I would most regret not seeing again on the screen. Pataky is simply divine as a heavenly soul with very worldly passions and Day creates one of the most likeable portrayals of your stereotypical youth of angst I have seen, perhaps ever.

This is a film possessing of some singularly awkward moments-- what can one expect from one that flirts with the taboo of incest but skirts the edges of morality on a technicality-- but there is a heart in Mancora and we see it bared, broken, swollen with emotion, and thumping wildly in turn.

03 August 2008