Bad Day to Go Fishing (2009)

I have absolutely never seen anything like this movie before. You have to see this movie.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Bad Day to Go Fishing (2009)What a terrific movie. It's filled with a slightly improbable, likable, colorful quality you have to watch even if you don't quite care. But you do eventually care. You want these quirky main characters to somehow succeed. Even if you don't know how they can do that.It's set in South America, but in an unanchored place called Santa Maria. (Could be anywhere, but much of the filming took place in Uruguay.) The main two characters are a pair of scam artists with good hearts and somewhat simple methods. One is an impresario with a flair for convincing people of things. The other is an aging wrestling champion from Germany (of all places--this is Uruguay, right?). And so the two of them enter this town with their usual plan.Except that their method of having a show and winning a finale match-off with a local big man wrestler gets off track when the challenger is a seriously huge and buff young man. And he can't be bought off.This is enough, but it hardly does justice to the huge array of really convincing and slightly exaggerated figures. There is the newspaper man, wise and quickly savvy to what's going on but willing to let it unfold on its own. There is the first challenger, who turns out to be perfect, and a drunk. There is the woman who wants to get married above all and needs the money. There is the town itself, filled with nostalgia--it feels like it's set in 1970, maybe, with old cars and old ways, and no cell phones or modern connections that might change the feel of it all. There is the idea of a strong man and wrestler in the first place, played by a rather woeful drunk himself. And there is the impresario, played brilliantly by Gary Piquer. He holds it all together, sad and wickedly charming and seemingly intelligent. He seems to have a good heart and yet he's scamming the town. And maybe (at times) leading on his main attraction, who also is his best (and only) friend.In fact, this becomes more and more a movie about the relationship the two traveling men have together. It takes a turn, convincing and emotionally satisfying, at the end. There are shades (in the most abstract way) of how the two leads related in "Midnight Cowboy," so that it's not the circumstances that win the day, but these two flawed and beautifully interesting people.This movie took me by surprise. I'm not sure why it gets so many low ratings. My suggestion is to go into it without expectations, and to let the characters slowly build. And to enjoy the scenes--the set design, old cars, and general lost in time quality is great all by itself.This is one of the best movies I've seen in awhile. Give it shot!

First off, I take issue with the description of the film, where it states- "Jacob van Oppen, the former strongest man on earth, and his manager Orsini, who calls himself "the Prince", make a good living by traveling around small South American towns and organizing wrestling exhibitions." Wrong. They do not make a good living. They are living a precarious existence. Jacob, a shadow of his former self and Orsini, a con-man who does not even have the 'mil dolares' to back up and finance his bets. They are leading a terrible life, are both alcoholics, and both know it. Orsini is a self-described Italian Prince, but no one dare ask what he is doing, taking seedy bus trips, promoting a washed-up wrestler, all over South and Central America.In any case, it's an excellent film. Jacob has become brain damaged from his years of wrestling and self abuse, he has reverted back to the mental state of a child. Not only that, he is bi-polar or has other mental issues which he takes medication for. As if that were not sad enough, Jacob also has some serious health issues. Although it has many comedic moments, it is nonetheless a sad film. It takes place in a fictional, back-water, town in Uruguay, in 1962. The acting and cinematography are all top notch. Jacob is somewhat devastated when he finds out the Orsini has been "fixing matches for him" and hand-picking opponents that insure Jacob wins the matches every time. The ending is brilliant and everything leads up to the final match at the end, where due to events in the town of Santa maria, Jacob must face a very tough opponent.

If you like Hemmingway or Mark Twain, you'll love this movie. This is the story of a washed-out champ (with Hemmingway it is usually a bullfighter, here it is a wrestler) who's way past his prime and just doesn't know when to quit. But he is not so over the hill that he can't be used by someone -- in this case a con man calling himself Prince Orsini. Orsini takes the pathetic (think washing in public fountains and wailing loudly in churches) ex-athlete on a tour of South America. They go from town to town where Orsini offers a $1,000 reward to anyone who could last 3 minutes in the ring with the champ. Then he normally bribes the local strongman to accept the challenge and throw the fight (and of course charges everyone in town for admittance). But in the town of Santa Maria, the duo lucks out: the local strongman turns out to be not only very strong, but also very honest: he won't accept a bribe. Orsini, afraid of losing both the reward money and his champ to boot, leaves no stone unturned in an attempt to get out of the fight. I won't give away the ending, but it very well done -- one of the best, most satisfying endings in any movie I've ever seen. In all, this is a masterpiece with many comedy moments and an excellent character development. You don't have to be a wrestling fan to enjoy (I'm not), and you won't be able to help reflecting on the fact that all of us will one day be past our prime.

An excellent first feature for director Alvaro Brechner. The strong writing and acting create characters that are believable and richly developed with subtlety and detail, but are not at all transparent. The viewer is invited into their experience yet still kept somewhat at a distance. What is innermost remains inaccessible as events unfold and build toward a climax. The film strikes a nice balance between character study and suspense. There is a simple plot – the film does more that just paint a picture, though that aspect in itself would be enough to make this a decent film.The visual elements serve the story very well – dark colors support the emotional content perfectly. The world that is portrayed is not glamorous, but lived-in and decadent. Two very different perspectives are evident in the film – the feeling of life on the road for the wrestler and his manager, and the poverty and boredom of the local people. Excellent costuming also helps define the characters and their environment.This film succeeds where many others that build toward a single event fail – it creates an emotional investment for the viewer – but one that may be ambiguous. Ultimately the characters are somewhat ambiguous themselves – but not due to any concealment on the part of the filmmaker. The characters simply are that way. We can't penetrate them or know their inner motives.The film makes a point – but it is far too subtle and enjoyable to be called a "message" film. The point is that events are easily understood - people aren't.