El niño pez (2009) Reviews

• The legend of the lake

  jotix1002010-12-01

  The sapphic love between two young women is at the center of this intriguing story from Argentina. Lala, the daughter of a prominent judge in Buenos Aires is having an intense love affair with Guayi, the Paraguayan maid working for the family. Lala wants them to go Guayi's country to live in the house they will build by a lake. For that purpose she goes to a small town across the border. Unknown to Lala, the judge, is also having his way with Guayi, probably against the maid's wishes. Nothing prepared Lala for what she finds once she gets North of the border. When she arrives at Guayi's house, she finds the fence decorated with little baby dolls and offerings left behind by people that went there as though looking for a place of worship. Guayi's father appears to let Lala in the house. He is a former soap star with a shady past, responsible for the tragedy his daughter experienced, and the reason she has stayed away from him. When Lala tries to leave, the man shows her a newspaper article showing her father was killed. Guayi is held responsible for the crime. Lala goes back to try to get her out of prison, something that proves to be almost impossible. With the help of a friend of Guayi this man stages a rescue. Finally the two women are together at last. Directed by Lucia Puenzo, and based on her own novel, "The Fish Child", the film mixes some magic realism, favored by a lot of South American writers, with a sort of road film. The narrative is obscure, although the core of the story is the love between two young women from different backgrounds. The story does not make clear what really happened to Lala's father, something the director does not fully explore. The same thing can be said about the relationship between Lala and a father she knows took advantage of Guayi and her absent mother. There are a lot of themes the director wants to tackle and perhaps it is why the film goes in different directions. The best thing in the film is the quality acting Ms. Puenzo got from the cast she put together. Ines Efron is quickly becoming one of the best actresses in Argentina, as she has already proved. Ms. Efron has an expressive face that adapts itself to conveying the emotions going on in Lala's head. Equally good is Mariela Vitale, a new face in films. Rodrigo Pulpeiro's dark cinematography contributes to create the atmosphere in which the action is set. This film, although shown at the Tribeca Film Festival, has not been released commercially, as far as we know in the United States. One feels Ms. Puenzo will be around for quite some time because she is a voice that deserves our attention.

• Great performances, confusing development of the story

  saratim12009-07-26

  Good intentions, no so well translated to the screen. In a way, confuse in many moments, not so clear in others; all related without a clear cinematographic language. A feeling that the story is what in Spanish we call "tirada de los pelos"; exaggerated situations without a clear context between one situation with another. Great performances of Ines Efron and specially of Mariela Vitale -the daughter of Lito Vitale, wow!-, that studied guarani for her role on this movie, a revelation as actress. A special mention for Arnaldo Andre, too.

• Class struggle

  Bocio2009-04-03

  Everything is going wrong in this upper class family of Buenos Aires except the irregular love of the daughter for her Paraguayan maid. Lucia Puenzo's second opus (an adaptation from her own book) is even more audacious than her debut XXY. Surfing through the classical genres (melodrama, thriller, sexploitation, voyage of self-discovering) she find her way to tell this poignant story of love and desire. It's also a denounce about the abuses of political power and everyday xenophobia. Superb performances from both leading ladies and the general cast, gloriously photographed and rightly directed. One of the great titles of 2009.

• It Has Promise, But Doesn't Live Up To Expectations

  sddavis632012-07-01

  It sounded interesting; almost like an Argentine version of "Heavenly Creatures" - but in the end "The Fish Child" fails to live up to the promise that it seems to have. The story revolves around the teenage daughter of an Argentine judge and his wife, who falls in love with the family's Paraguayan maid. The two plot to run off together to Paraguay, to live in a house by a lake, but things don't turn out as planned when the judge is killed. There's not a lot of mystery about his killing; there is a lot of intrigue about the past - particularly the maid's past - but somehow the movie seemed kind of choppy to me (perhaps the result of subtitles) so that it didn't really draw me in particularly well. The strongest part of the movie is probably the performance of Ines Efron as the judge's daughter. She was quite good and convincing in the role. Mariela Vitale was also quite good as the maid. That said, the movie still disappointed a bit. (4/10)

• Ladies In the Water

  doctorsmoothlove2011-09-28

  Lucía Puenzo and star Inés Efrón unite for an LGBT follow-up to their above-average XXY. This time their focus is on the L part of that acronym as evidenced by the sexy DVD cover. For a second film, it's a slight improvement over its predecessor, not finding an interest in the transgendered romance (itself an intriguing topic) to sustain itself. Without such a crutch, Puenzo's limitations and development as a filmmaker are more visible. She has now made two good films but lacks the discipline to be great. Puenzo has not learned how to incorporate surrealist and metaphorical imagery properly into her films. Like the clownfish shots of XXY, the phantasmagoria in The Fish Child is given its own separate sequence in which it to take place. The efficacy of these scenes is risible; they are there serving an indulgent purpose (this is a self-adaption of Puenzo's novel). She should to consider the meat floating in Buñuel's Los Olvidados, to name another Latin American example. Surrealism doesn't need to occur; its inclusion is appropriately conceived if a structured narrative is present. Fortunately, Puenzo's editor has structured the film in such a way that it slowly unveils its predetermined story, avoiding the thriller clichés the DVD box claims the movie offers. With this detraction of plot comes greater opportunity to explore the characters' repressed queer femininity that is caught between girlhood and womanhood. They frequent nightclubs, where lecherous men hit on them, and they are shown chatting about their affections as the film progresses. Their chats occur in isolated places like a bathtub or a prison while the camera follows them exclusively. Puenzo suggests the idea that their self-actualization may only occur in places away from society, which few queer films address (they are too concerned with "otherness"). Thus, is not exploitative of its characters or indulgent of its queerness despite the promulgation of critics and marketers. The Fish Child is the rare GLBT film that is worth watching even it doesn't represent much improvement over XXY. Recommended