Leap Year (2010)
(Año bisiesto)
Country: MEX
Technical: col/2.35:1 94m
Director: Michael Rowe
Cast: Monica del Carmen, Gustavo Sánchez Parra, Armando Hernández
Synopsis:
Mexico City, February: a woman journalist dependent on second-hand evidence for her writings prepares for the first time to observe the anniversary of her father's death four years previously. As the last day of the month draws nearer she engages with increasing melancholy in bouts of self-degradatory sex with strangers until she finds a man ready to treat her so badly he might just help her perform the ultimate act of contrition.
Review:
Confined in all but the first scene to the girl's apartment, and kept at a distance by the director's predilection for mid-shots and medium shots, the viewer has so little frame of reference with which to make sense of her predicament he is obliged to use what clues he has: a phone call to her boss, a lie about her diet to her Mum, an evaded question about how she lost her virginity (paternal abuse?) On the face of it we have a character who appears to rejoice in the freedom and opportunity of life in the capital, and secure in her building watching her neighbours; but clearly this does not marry up with her personal circumstances wherein longing for a stable loving relationship she throws herself into demeaning liaisons she goes out of her way to keep anonymous. Her lovesick brother provides the one shred of normality to which she may anchor herself and which might just save her. In the end while the film is about turning over a new leaf the experience is more like penance than release.
(Año bisiesto)
Country: MEX
Technical: col/2.35:1 94m
Director: Michael Rowe
Cast: Monica del Carmen, Gustavo Sánchez Parra, Armando Hernández
Synopsis:
Mexico City, February: a woman journalist dependent on second-hand evidence for her writings prepares for the first time to observe the anniversary of her father's death four years previously. As the last day of the month draws nearer she engages with increasing melancholy in bouts of self-degradatory sex with strangers until she finds a man ready to treat her so badly he might just help her perform the ultimate act of contrition.
Review:
Confined in all but the first scene to the girl's apartment, and kept at a distance by the director's predilection for mid-shots and medium shots, the viewer has so little frame of reference with which to make sense of her predicament he is obliged to use what clues he has: a phone call to her boss, a lie about her diet to her Mum, an evaded question about how she lost her virginity (paternal abuse?) On the face of it we have a character who appears to rejoice in the freedom and opportunity of life in the capital, and secure in her building watching her neighbours; but clearly this does not marry up with her personal circumstances wherein longing for a stable loving relationship she throws herself into demeaning liaisons she goes out of her way to keep anonymous. Her lovesick brother provides the one shred of normality to which she may anchor herself and which might just save her. In the end while the film is about turning over a new leaf the experience is more like penance than release.
(Año bisiesto)
Country: MEX
Technical: col/2.35:1 94m
Director: Michael Rowe
Cast: Monica del Carmen, Gustavo Sánchez Parra, Armando Hernández
Synopsis:
Mexico City, February: a woman journalist dependent on second-hand evidence for her writings prepares for the first time to observe the anniversary of her father's death four years previously. As the last day of the month draws nearer she engages with increasing melancholy in bouts of self-degradatory sex with strangers until she finds a man ready to treat her so badly he might just help her perform the ultimate act of contrition.
Review:
Confined in all but the first scene to the girl's apartment, and kept at a distance by the director's predilection for mid-shots and medium shots, the viewer has so little frame of reference with which to make sense of her predicament he is obliged to use what clues he has: a phone call to her boss, a lie about her diet to her Mum, an evaded question about how she lost her virginity (paternal abuse?) On the face of it we have a character who appears to rejoice in the freedom and opportunity of life in the capital, and secure in her building watching her neighbours; but clearly this does not marry up with her personal circumstances wherein longing for a stable loving relationship she throws herself into demeaning liaisons she goes out of her way to keep anonymous. Her lovesick brother provides the one shred of normality to which she may anchor herself and which might just save her. In the end while the film is about turning over a new leaf the experience is more like penance than release.