Director's Gamboa is responsible for the teen saga La primera noche (The first night), La segunda noche, and the light comedy Educación sexual en breves lecciones (Sexual education in short lessons). And all this films have one thing in common: they feature mostly TV starlets; this means they can't hardly act, beyond soap opera's performances. Well then, apparently with El tigre de Santa Julia Gamboa tried to turn on a wilder side maybe in sake for his filmography. He didn't make it.
I know this movie is supposed to be only a fun one, based on a character that grew on México's mind as a legend because of the way he was caught. But, it seems that the whole story is only waiting for that event to happen, and constructed a lame screenplay on it's way for it. In result, we have a film with no climax, and not capable to create in us any root of interest for the people involved. Besides, the story is not that close to what some researchers have disclosed about the myth of the guy who became an outlaw. But that's not the worst part, it´s about bad acting and a pretentious narrative that describes mainly the brave (or shoul I say macho?) and horny side of the character. One more thing is that Gamboa once said that the aesthetics in the film are intentional in order to make it look like a comic book. Bad choice. The computer manipulated skies and open fields looks silly and aged, rather than extracted from a comics atmosphere; and I sure have seen good works on this subject -just take as an example The unbreakable, or Dobermann. In resume, El tigre de Santa Julia doesn't deliver what it promises; there ain't no action, no humor and even less climax. Of any kind.
Sure there´s been recently a fuss over mexican cinema, and even though there are some excellent films like Amores perros or Y tu mamá también, this one has nothing to do side to side with them. So don´t get fooled by the propaganda, and be aware if this boring kitty hits your town.
