[3.0/4.0]
(Dialog in Spanish, English subtitles)
This film was released under the English title "A Sweet Scent of Death".
This film was screened at Cinequest 10, the San Jose film festival.
The rural countryside is often depicted as a serene realm with a simple life. However, it can also be a complex place filled with love, tragedy, honor, and deception. It can be a place where friends are held exceptionally close, and outsiders are distrusted and avoided.
The story begins with the young Ramón (Diego Luna) opening the day at his mother's general store. He is visited there by the object of his affection, Adela, and he give her a gift of a bottle of perfume. She is friendly and accepts it, but they clearly have not yet developed a relationship. Her family is one of several newcomers to the area, which are all considered outsiders to the town, and are warily mistrusted by the longtime resident families.
A web of intrigue begins to emerge when Adela is found naked and lifeless in an oat field. Being a newcomer, she is not immediately recognized by the people. When Ramón appears on the scene, he tries to give the corpse some dignity by covering her with his shirt. The openly grieving Ramón is identified as her boyfriend, and although he knows this falsely represents their relationship, he does not deny it.
Although the corrupt federale wants to quickly investigate the crime (he suspects Ramón, as a jealous lover), the paternal sheriff Justino (Hector Alterio) manages to keep the investigation a local affair. Being the godfather of Ramón, he knows the boy well enough to feel that he is innocent.
Most of the village's people pin the crime on "The Gypsy" (Karra Elejalde), a shady vagabond who has many scattered lovers. The men of the village encourage Ramón to avenge the death of his girlfriend by seeking out "The Gypsy" and killing him. Ramón relishes the recognition of Adela as his girlfriend, an accomplishment he was never able to achieve, and he lets the attention sweep him into self-delusion.
The film is a complex story with many dimensions, whose many parts construct a single portrait. The many different components are effectively explored without dwelling on any single aspect. Although parts of the story drag for too long, there still remain several colorful and engaging facets that keep the film enjoyable. This is clearly a film about this particular culture, the themes of honor and revenge can seem alien and jarring to viewers from other cultures. In the end, the primary mystery is solved, but the primary satisfaction is not the closure of this thread, but the overall portrait that was painted.
Recommended. This is a multifaceted film, whose primary mystery is perhaps not its most interesting aspect. It weaves a tapestry of the many dimensions of life in rural Mexico.
(c) 2000 Murali Krishnan The Art House Squatter http://ArtHouseSquatter.com
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ Before you buy.
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews