|
|
|
|
||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|||||
 |
 |
|
A Place in the World by Stephen Farber Is there a middle ground between garish pulp fiction and a sweet but plotless piffle? Surprisingly, a South American film, A Place in the World, manages to discover the perfect balance. Adolfo Aristarain's epic was partly inspired by George Stevens's Shane, and it has the sweep and passion of good Hollywood movies from bygone days. From the early scenes of a boy in a buckboard racing a train, you know you're in the hands of a natural-born moviemaker. The story of a group of small farmers battling a greedy rancher is the stock-in-trade of countless Westerns. But there's nothing simplistic in Aristarain's view or agrarian politics; he doesn't glorify the unlettered peasants, and he portrays all the characters with complexity. The actors all make a vivid impression: Gaston Batyi as the 12-year-old hero, Federico Luppi (the star of Cronos) as his idealistic father, Cecilia Roth as his more pragmatic mother, and Leonor Benedetto as the radical nun who won't play by Church rules. The scene in which Roth tells the story of her brother's murder by the military regime is as powerful a piece of acting as you're likely to see all year. A Place in the World reminds us that it's possible to immerse the audience in a high-powered narrative without resorting to the cheap manipulation that so many American directors consider obligatory. What did you think of this movie? Sound off in the Movie Forum. |
|
|
| home | forum | this month | reviews archive | features archive | back issues | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 © 2003 Movieline.com |
 |