Huérfanos (2014) Reviews

• Had potential but is too theatrical

  DhariaLezin2015-06-25

  There is a problem in Mexican movies. Most of the actors belong to the old school, that is the theater school, even the young ones, and as far as I am concerned, there is not one single good camera acting school, so the few ones that are not overly acting, theater kind, are autodidacts, and they are a big, big exception. And it seems the movie directors either don't mind, or even like that fake tone. So, specially in contemporary cinema, it gets tedious to hear them kind of declaiming, reciting without verses, speaking super slow and making huge pauses (and I mean huge), that have absolutely nothing to do with the script, maybe trying to create some drama, or give the line more intention, but this is not achieved in any of them. Their face expressions is also way too much, and don't even mention the erotic scenes. It seems that they are gonna die in the middle of a kiss. This movie obviously is no exception. If I saw the same acting, movements, expressions, and costumes in theater, probably I would have liked what I saw because the tone is entirely different. But in a movie it becomes tedious, boring and sometimes even worth to laugh about, when the movie it is supposed to be a drama. I was wondering to myself who would talk like that in any other movie, even if the art is set in the XIX century. Or who would stay with a disturbed face looking at the horizon for so long. In one scene you can see a character "whispering" to himself in quite loud voice, in a room where there are two other characters and all you can wonder is how the heck the others didn't hear that. The camera is like very 70's kind, too open or too closed and almost always by hand with no imagination or creativity whatsoever, and the music becomes too perky in the middle of the drama. But my main issue is that I cannot hear them talking anymore, I can't. I am fed up of the theater-kind movies in Mexico without being that the intention because (again) this movie is supposed to be the total opposite of farcical or even comedy. So, if you are up for theater on your TV go for it, but if no, this is gonna be a huge disappointment.

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