Tetro (2009)

Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

Fantastic!

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

During a lull in receipt of new movies at my local public library I found the BluRay of this movie on the shelves, begging for a viewing. I have found almost any recent movie on BluRay is worth seeing for the glorious picture and sound. This one fits the bill.It is set and 'filmed' digitally in beautiful Argentina, mostly in relatively high contrast B&W, with flashback scenes in full color. It works very well and looking back at my viewing experience I enjoyed the cinematography even more than the story.Yet the story is good, generally around old and new family dynamics. Set in early 2008, mid-40s Vincent Gallo is 40-ish Angelo Tetrocini, son of a famous musical conductor. He was a promising writer but left his American home and went off to Argentina where he no longer wrote. He doesn't want any connection to his family and has dropped his real name and goes only by 'Tetro'. If you look up the definition of 'tetro' you get " gloomy, sullen bleak, dismal, grim " and that pretty well characterizes Tetro. His younger brother is Alden Ehrenreich, about 18, as Bennie, about to turn 18. He has a job as a waiter on a cruise liner that has engine problems so he has a few days to look up Angie, his brother. But Tetro is not happy to see him, he makes that clear, but his wife urges Bennie to stay with them for the few days.Bennie discovers Tetro's unfinished manuscripts, which also infuriated Tetro when he found out. But they being all "unfinished" Bennie was determined to write an ending. he turned it into a stage play which became a contender at the May 2008 Patagonia festival.The movie is seldom fun to watch, well maybe the scene where Bennie, just having turned 18, is in a bathtub with two attractive young ladies. But it is a gripping drama and Gallo is ideal for the role.SPOILERS: The family dynamics were even more serious than we first knew, Bennis is not Tetro's brother, he is actually his son from a brief love affair when Tetro was 20. I'm still not sure why Tetro was rejecting even his own son but in the end it seems that there would be redemption for all.

The moment I saw a poster of this movie, I understood - those are the eyes I can fall in love easily. And the first impression was 100% right. An acting of Vincent Gallo (who acts the main character Tetro) is incredible. His shoulders are hump, face is in deep pain and eyes are in mystery. Every move shows his deep soul and a secret that lie in him(reminds me Al Pacino from Coppola's "Grandfather"). Tetro's spirit is broken, at some moments even I felt all the chaos that took control of his life. A look of a devil, just misunderstood genius that can explode every second. This is it, only his acting saves the movie.It's a little bit strange to see only black/white (with some short moments of colour) movie. It reminds me those old movies where femme fatale smoke cigarettes, where everyone are so elegant. That's why I like this movie, it has an aura of elegance.And, although, the work of a camera is brilliant and the montage just takes breath away there is something missing. It has a good, strong beginning, but with every minute your attention is more and more slipping away. Moreover, the ending is too predictable and cheesy (Coppola, I didn't expected that from you).I fall in love with Vincent Gallo acting, work of a camera and an old-fashioned style of Coppola. But in this story...it's too light, there's not enough weight to stay in my mind for a longer time. Maybe it's not a love, maybe it's just a crush.

A young boy, Bennie (Alden Ehrenreich), a waiter on a cruise ship that is temporarily down for repairs in Buenos Aries, takes the opportunity to call on his older brother Tetro (Vincent Gallo) who has exiled himself in Argentina to escape some bad things in his past. Tetro wants nothing to do with his family, including Bennie; initially he even refuses to come out of his room to meet him. Through a complicated set of events, the estranged Tetro finally comes to the inevitable reconciliation with Bennie. In the process we get details about why Tetro has taken the path that he has.Tetro's girlfriend Miranda is played by Maribel Verdu in a consistently appealing performance. At times I thought that Ehrenreich may be destined to be the next great young actor, but at other times he seemed like a teenager just reading his lines. I do think we are going to see more of this attractive actor. In the spirit of full disclosure I have to admit that my comments on this movie are biased by a visceral dislike of Vince Gallo. Gallo plays Tetro as a most unlikeable character. Throughout the movie I puzzled as to why either Bennie or Miranda would hang around Tetro, given his fits of temper and general unpleasant behavior. Klaus Maria Brandauer, as Tetro's father in flashbacks, plays the role of an egocentric and manipulative symphony orchestra conductor to the hilt.The story becomes more absurd and implausible as the movie goes along. Are we to believe that Bennie takes the scrawls of Tetro, that have to be read backwards with a mirror, and turns them into a prize-winning play? Why does Tetro wait until he does to reveal his true relationship to Bennie? And in such a melodramatic manner? And what was with the all-powerful cultural critic named "Alone?" On the one hand we are told that Alone had impeded Tetro's career because of her criticisms, but on the other hand we are told that Tetro had never published. How does one criticize what has never existed?Filming the flashbacks in color (using what appears to be a faded red filter) is an interesting touch. Most of the flashbacks are operatic in nature, and some effects left me speculating about their relevance, like the one scene that starts out with dancers on a stage and then has an ocean lapping onto stage left. Nice effect, but what is the meaning of it? This could easily be staged as a play and the way the movie is filmed reminded me a lot of the filming of "A Streetcar Named Desire." And there are elements of imitating "8 1/2" as well, particularly the way that Alone and her entourage are filmed.As a lover of black and white, I found the excellent use of that medium in this movie a pure delight, but in the end I was less than enthusiastic about the film in general.

When two estranged brothers are reunited in Buenos Aires a story unfolds as truths are told, history revisited and the future rewritten. Glorious in it's black and white, Francis Ford Coppola has woven together a huge, operatic styled film with a beautiful, yet sad tale of family at it's heart.It is often breathtaking in it's imagery; light flickers across faces, each frame looks exquisite and the camera places itself at angles that give a entirely new perspective. Alden Ehrenrich is beautiful upon the screen and portrays the younger brother Bennie wonderfully. Older brother Tetro is aloof and almost mean and is actually well played by Vincent Gallo. Another great performance is by Maribel Verdu as the ever supportive woman in Tetro's life.The story is immense, and the past is gradually revealed and usually and at first oddly in contrasting colour. These flashbacks I found annoying because they were in colour, yet as the film progresses a touch of surrealism enters the film as flashbacks are told in colour but also in the form of dance adding to the operatic, theatrical feel the film gathers as it progresses. It is an amazing achievement, the dance sequences are beautiful and sublime. As is the film's score, at times the use of opera and classical pieces couldn't be more perfect and add a wonderful sense of feeling to the film. I was so throughally enraged by the film I could barely take my eye from the screen.It is rare that I come away from a film, wanting to see it again, but with Tetro I did. It is a film full of beauty, emotion and tragedy. One that tells a great story and does so with great visual style. Brilliant stuff More of my reviews at my site iheartfilms.weebly.com