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Te Doy Mis Ojos (2003) from ICMS |
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May I ask your attention for a Spanish movie? The film that I'm going to praise here is "Te Doy Mis Ojos" (2003; aka. Take my eyes) and is the tangible proof that you don't need a $100+ million budget to make a good movie, let alone a bad one. It was nominated for 9 Goyas, the Spanish equivalent of the Oscars, and deservedly won 7.
The movie is a psychological (or even sociological) drama
about domestic violence. Before anyone starts thinking "oh
no, not one of these politically correct biased art films
again that only pleases the target audiences it was made
for", let me tell you that it carefully avoids this trap.
Before we get to that, let us reveal a bit of the story first.
One night in Toledo, Spain, Pilar (Laia Marull) and
her young son Juan seek shelter from her husband Antonio
(Luis Tosar) at her sister Ana's (Candela Peña) house.
Although her sister lives in a small place with her
Scottish fiancé whom she is about to marry, she takes
Pilar and Juan in, of course. Ana also finds out that the
physical abuse of her sister has been going on for years
and advises her to divorce. Antonio however is doing his
utmost, or so it seems, to win his wife and son back and
Pilar isn't ready either to give up her marriage to the
man she truly loves. And it looks like he is going to
succeed, Pilar returns home and he doesn't abuse her
physically anymore.
But is that enough to make a happy marriage?
Antonio is still working on his violent streaks, which are
now aimed against objects and still scare the hell out of
his wife. In the meantime faithful Pilar found a job as a
museum guide, takes much pride in her work and develops
her cultural knowledge as well. Jealous Antonio, on the
other hand, remains stuck in his job as a surly salesman
of electrical home equipment in his dad's business, and
stays frozen in his usual attitudes. Furthermore he
realizes that he is underachieving, which bothers him but
not his wife. It is obvious that things will clash and
come to a climax, given his past behavior. The result
is not that physically violent for Pilar but very, very
cruel and humiliating nevertheless.
The movie is in my opinion brilliantly made. The script
explores every possible psychological angle of the subject
with great subtlety. It would have been easy to fall into
the trap of portraying Antonio as a brute who loves
violence, we learn that in fact he doesn't, but he really
sees no other way. At the end you certainly don't feel any
sympathy for him, but you somehow feel a little bit sorry
as well for this man with his limited social and
educational skills who never learnt to express his
feelings in a non-violent manner. The film also managed to avoid picturing Pilar as a battered, weak, emotional and
passive woman. That too would have been far too easy a
cliché. As I mentioned before, the movie works on a much
more subtle psychological level that fills you with a
certain amount of empathy for both characters and, until
the last 10 minutes, it keeps you dangling on how the story
will unwind.
The flawless and subtle script never leads to boredom,
while the lighting, the camera work and the editing are
top notch. Director Icíar Bollaín, also co-author of the
script, clearly knew what she was doing, but what makes
the movie work even better are the brilliant
performances from the actors. Luis Tosar very accurately
portrays a completely believable character, while Laia
Marull is simply brilliant. Her facial expressions and
manners are painstakingly realistic and keep you glued to
the screen for the whole 103 minutes of the movie. You
even wonder if she might have gone through a similar
experience in real life. The combination of all
aforementioned strong points makes watching this movie an
eerily realistic experience that should be compulsory
viewing for men with violent behavior. Sometimes a long
good look in the mirror achieves more than hours of
counseling.
According to Yahoo! Movies this movie is set for release
on April 25, 2005 in the US. It did well at the box office
in its home country but incomprehensibly didn't have much
of an international release so far.
For those of you who might be tempted to give this film a
go, I sincerely hope that I didn't spoil your viewing
pleasure with this review. I really did my best not to
give too much away, but reviewing the film without
revealing anything proved impossible. For those of you who
wonder if I am familiar with this kind of violence, let me
assure you that I am not. It is just portrayed in such a
way that it becomes so recognizable and real that
you simply cannot stay untouched by this feature.
Or maybe I just got carried away, but then so would have been the jury who awarded the 7 Goyas. |
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