LOVERS OF THE ARCTIC CIRCLE (Spanish with subtitles)
A review by Mark R. Leeper in bullet-list form
from the Toronto Internation Film Festival
CAPSULE: A tender love about love, fate, and the power of coincidence. This is the story of Ana and Otto who love each other from childhood, become foster brother and sister, lovers, and finally have linked fates within the Arctic Circle. Rating: 7 (0 to 10), low +2 (-4 to +4)
- Written and directed by Julio Medem. - Arctic plane crash under the credits, a teaser for what will happen in the final reel. - Story is told in chapters, usually alternating between "Otto" and "Ana." - Otto as a child loves paper airplanes. He flies dozens over the school playground setting several plot lines in motion. Otto's father meets Ana's mother and leaves Otto's mother for her. Otto and Ana fall in love even though they are living like brother and sister. They have a secret love affair in their parents' house. - Stories and flashbacks keep interconnecting with each other. - Otto who has left his mother's house to live with his father and Ana then blames himself for his mother's death. Theme of guilt and shame. - There is some nudity in some nicely filmed love scenes. Spanish films usually seem to have interesting approaches to their frequent nude scenes. - Supposedly story is told from one character's point of view or the other's. Yet scenes in which they come close but do not see each other cannot be from either's point of view, or how would they have known? - Characters believe very heavily in power of coincidence and coincidence is what drives the story. Some of the coincidences are extremely far-fetched. - End of film seems very contrived.
Mark R. Leeper
mleeper@lucent.com
Copyright 1998 Mark R. Leeper
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