Two children travel with their parents from Santiago Chile to the north of Chile for a family holiday. Read more …
The landscape's loneliness and the car's confinement help bring out the couple's troubles and the children learn that this might turn out to be their father's farewell and their last family vacation.
The problem is that the film is such a precisely-composed and well-observed recreation of this type of journey that, as well as provoking admiration at Castillo’s achievement, it ultimately encourages the same kind of glazed-over, seeing-but-not-registering state that overcomes most passengers on long-haul car rides.
An impressive debut by Castillo.
A challenging film, but one that rewards careful attention.
Very little happens, very slowly, in this Chilean road-trip drama, though it's not without moments of grace.
Anyone who has ever been trapped in a car with their quarrelling clan will surely find much to appreciate here.
Very much the promising first film, it's prone to burying its sharper observations under drift, but the performers, working almost in teams, are convincing, and Sotomayor elicits consistently charming responses from Ahumada in particular: bored, wistful, alert to the trouble ahead.
The takes are long, static and not always rewarding, but Santi Ahumada's performance as Lucía has the qualities we used to associate with Italian neo-realism.
While it’s nicely acted, this is a slow-moving vehicle.
On the road with Dominga Sotomayor
Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee from Monday April 29, 2013, until Thursday May 2, 2013. More info: www.dca.org.uk
RSS feed of Cinema reviews