Lost Embrace (2004)
In Buenos Aires, the twenty-something Jewish-Argentinean Ariel Makaroff ditches the University of Architecture and spends his time wandering through the downtown gallery where his mother has a lingerie shop and his brother runs an importation business. Ariel has never understood why his father left him when he was a baby, but when his dad returns to Argentina, that will soon change.
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Perfect cast and a good story
Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.
Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.
I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.
Actually I'm from Lithuania and I was interested in this film, because from the film synopsis and credits I have learned that it shows lives of Eastern European immigrants in Argentina and Lithuania belongs to Eastern Europe. Maybe you don't know, but in first part of XX century there was big flow of emigration from Lithuania to South America. So I was very surprised, when I saw girl from Lithuania in film speaking ... Russian when film credits indicate that she is speaking ... Lithuanian. Next thing, her name is Vilna and there is no such Lithuanian name. Perhaps it was made up from name of Lithuanian capital Vilnius or misspelled from Vilma. In America, especially USA, people from Lithuania are regarded as being Russians, and for Lithuanians who were occupied bu Soviet Union it is an insult, but it does not relieve director or script writer from responsibility to check about subject depicted. Especially when film pretends to be in reality style. Cinematogapyhy and storyline is good, I do not argue, but poor analysis of the details casts doubt about reality value of this film and its pretensions to social criticism.
*THIS COMMENT CONTAIN SPOILERS* *THIS COMMENT CONTAIN SPOILERS*I have almost nothing good to say about this film. The characters were not interesting enough. The dialog was as its best dry and simple. The jokes(were there any jokes) have simply passed me without making me laugh. It was too predictable and obvious. As an experienced movie goer I could see for miles ahead that the father will be returning to solve the conflict and that Daniel will not be going to Europe after all. At 100 minutes long, it was too long, and the material could not be holding the 100 minutes. The camera work was irritating. The only thing that was good and may have saved from a total disaster was the acting. It looked authentic and natural. What a waste of time and money.
This film has been compared in the press to an early Woody Allen feature, and the comparison is a just one, not however for the presence of comic moments (there really aren't many such), but for the incredible self-absorption of the hero, Ariel. Abandoned by his father at an early age and bored with his life as a salesman in his mother's lingerie shop located in a Buenos Aires mall, the moody Ariel longs for what seems like hours of screen time to escape to the necessarily greener fields of Europe. Ariel is played by handsome Daniel Hendler who unfortunately gives a pretty one dimensional and ultimately boring performance, ranging from the gloomy to the sorely beset. To be fair to Hendler, though, his role seems deliberately limited to such a narrow range by the screenplay itself, which finds his inability to smile apparently richly comic. This essentially stale coming of age story is further burdened by an incessantly jerky, headache inducing hand-held camera, and the presence of numerous quirky characters doing cameos in the manner of American sit-coms. A forgettable "art" film.
"Abrazo partido" is a very subtle, true to life story about the middle classes in Buenos Aires after the economic crisis 2001. Those that have been to Argentina will undoubtedly recognize some of the beautifully stereotyped protagonists: the melancholic youngster, the budding bric-a-brac entrepreneur, the disillusioned pensioners recalling Argentina's glory days, the disrespected immigrant labourer. These characters make this idiosyncratic country, and indeed this movie, so likeable. Even the people's underlying optimism and the love for their country, which -in the light of Argentina's demise- may surprise visitors, shines through. I highly recommend the movie 9/10.