THE DISAPPEARANCE OF GARCIA LORCA
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 1997 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): ** 1/2
The great Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca died in the Spanish Civil War. That much is much is known. THE DISAPPEARANCE OF GARCIA LORCA is a fictional tale, based on two books by Ian Gibson, that postulates what might have happened, but, as the opening credits admit, the exact circumstances of his death remain an enigma.
Andy Garcia, filmed with heavy backlighting and in a warm golden haze, plays the poet Lorca as a kind of literary saint. With his suits as white as clerical robes and with his words read with the force of gospels, Garcia gives a moving performance, although Garcia always appears to be playing himself as much as any character. If you've recently seen him in HOODLUM, you have to remind yourself that he has changed roles and is now the good guy and not the bad.
Juan Ruiz-Anchia's cinematography and Gil Parrondo's sets for this Granada-based film are gorgeous. The white stone of the buildings are set off by blowing leaves of orange and gold, and the picturesque Alhambra lies majestically in the background. All the while, Mark McKenzie's Spanish music puts you in a dreamy mood.
The story is told in flashback by Ricardo, played a bit too earnestly by Esai Morales. Ricardo leaves his new home in Puerto Rico in 1954 to return home to Spain. Writing a book on his beloved Lorca, whom he met briefly when Ricardo was 14, he goes back to find the truth about Lorca's death and to tie up loose ends in his own life.
Although the countryside looks placid, it isn't. Big goons follow Ricardo everywhere. And like most stories of this kind, he ignores numerous warnings to leave and seems not to notice people tailing him until it is almost too late.
The story follows a picture puzzle approach with Ricardo trying to figure out where each piece goes. Along the way, he meets a string of characters in a story that suffers from being too disconnected. First a character will seem a villain, and then it will be revealed that not he but someone else should be blamed for past misdeeds. Edward James Olmos shows up, for example, as Roberto Lozano, the man who arranged for Lorca to be arrested and put in jail. Roberto, now a publisher of the definitive collection of Lorca's writings, claims he was just protecting Lorca.
The script by Neil Cohen, Juan Antonio Ramos and Marcos Zurinaga is alive with vivid imagery when reading directly from Lorca's poetry -- the best being his "... at five in the afternoon" poem. In contrast, the rest of the flat dialog has little resonance. Typical of the pedestrian lines is the warning of Colonel Aguirre (Jeroen Krabbe). "Ricardo, watch yourself," he says in a line straight out of a B-movie. "One doesn't ask certain questions."
After a series of increasing predictable plot twists, the exceedingly handsome picture makes one last switcheroo. For my money, I'd rather have junked the story and let Andy Garcia spend the time reading Lorca's works. He did it with such flourish and panache that it would have been easy to stay for two hours of it. Sadly, these recitations make up less than ten minutes of THE DISAPPEARANCE OF GARCIA LORCA. Like the Cheshire cat, the story should have disappeared leaving only the poetry.
THE DISAPPEARANCE OF GARCIA LORCA runs 1:54. The film is in English. It is rated R for violence, profanity, sex, and nudity. The film would be fine for most teenagers. Although the narrative is too confusing, the poetry and the images are enough for me to recommend the film and give it ** 1/2.
**** = A must see film. *** = Excellent show. Look for it. ** = Average movie. Kind of enjoyable. * = Poor show. Don't waste your money. 0 = Totally and painfully unbearable picture.
REVIEW WRITTEN ON: October 6, 1997
Opinions expressed are mine and not meant to reflect my employer's.
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