You think Tarkovsky is slow? Try Reygadas. I mean, during the three hours of Andrei Rublev a lot of stuff happens. Nuestro tiempo takes almost the same time for no good reason.
(The same could, or should, be said about Reygadas’ debut, Japón. I watched it many years ago on DVD and couldn’t finish it in one evening. I have to admit that I didn’t remember the name of the director and discovered that it was the same Reygadas only after seeing Nuestro tiempo.)
This movie is miles away from Todos lo saben — yet, on another plane, uncannily similar to it. Another real-life couple, this time complete with their real-life children, playing a variation on themselves. Another totally unexpected predictable MFM triangle. Worst thing of all: in both cases, I couldn’t care less about the trio of protagonists.
Why, o why? The theme of infidelity (and fidelity, for that matter) in an ostensibly open relationship well could have been dealt with grace, sensitivity and humour. No such luck here. Maybe that was the idea, but we don’t see much of the affair of Ester with “gringo” Phil. Maybe the affair itself is not particularly interesting to Reygadas. Maybe. But the inability of Juan, who is posing as an open-minded, generous, gentlemanly intellectual, in reality your common or garden superpossessive macho man (a renowned writer turned fighting bull breeder — seriously?), to deal with this, is not that fascinating either.
Yet there is a lot of beauty in the movie. The photography by Adrian Durazo and Diego García is magnificent. I can understand why Ester fell in love with the part of the country where their rancho is. I can also understand why she’s got dead bored there. The long opening sequence of children playing outdoors and teenagers having a good time nearby is wonderful. Also, it does not lead anywhere: we won’t see most of them ever again. And that’s great. Getting rid of all scenes with boring protagonists would cut the film down to about one hour. It could be as good as Braguino then.
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