Very sweet mid-life crisis movie from Argentina starring the brilliant
Ricardo Darín from 'Nine Queens'. Darin plays Rafael, a driven
restaurant owner who's stressed lifestyle and continuous intake of
ristrettos and cigarettes earns him a heart attack. Lying in his
hospital bed he resolves to start 'a new cycle', simplifying his life.
This proves harder than he expects. Gorgeous younger girlfriend
Nat wants commitment, ex-wife Sandra heaps scorn on his
neuroses and his dapper father wants financial help in enacting a
touching gesture to his wife of 44 years: a proper wedding
ceremony.
Rafael is assisted in meeting these challenges by the appearance
of an old friend, Juan Carlos. Played with memorable comic
energy by Eduardo Blanco (a kind of Argentine Roberto Benigni),
Juan Carlos' loyalty and friendship - and the story of his own
triumph over tragic life circumstances - helps Rafael understand
the treasure he possesses without appreciating it: family.
It may sound kind of soppy, and at moments 'Son of the Bride'
does teeter into sentimentality, but on the whole this is a
consistently entertaining movie, the best of its kind I've seen in a
long time. The film's script is very nearly brilliant, stuffed full of bon
mots and witty asides, from the Padre describing his new speaker
system as 'omnipresent' to Juan Carlos' Jesus-Christ-as-
Maradonna joke.
But its quality lies in more than just a list of gleaming one-liners
and 'zingy' exchanges. There's acres of depth here too, in passing
observations about the universality of corruption in modern day
Argentina, to wry observations about the hypocrisy of the church.
Campanella covers a lot of bases - much more so than comparable comedies from the US - without ever losing his
lightness of touch. It's this that raises 'Son of the Bride' above the
mass and makes it a movie that I'm actually very keen to see
again.
Impossible not to like, then, and if the ending doesn't leave you
with a tear in your eye, you're a heartless swine.
I actually caught 'Son of the Bride' last night in a double with 'Nine
Queens'
