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Ricardo Darín,
Héctor Alterio,
Norma Aleandro,
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Juan Jose Campanella
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: Columbia TriStar
: Foreign, Spain, Latin America
: 124 min.
: Spanish
: English, French
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This title is currently out of print.
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A family wedding brings out the best and the worst in the various parties involved in this warm but pointed comedy-drama. Rafael Belvedere (Ricardo Darin) makes his living running the restaurant ran by his father, Nino (Hector Alterio), and the combination of a stressful job and familial tensions are wearing him down to a frazzle. Rafael is divorced from his wife, Sandra (Claudia Fontan), he's all but a stranger to his daughter, Vicky (Gimena Nobile), and it's been almost a year since he last paid a visit to his mother, Norma (Norma Aleandro), who is battling Alzheimer's in a retirement home. Rafael has a girlfriend, Naty (Natalia Verbeke), but after a long day of work and dealing with his father, she finds he rarely wants to do anything but watch old reruns on television. With Norma's health declining, Nino decides that he wants to renew their wedding vows and give his wife the nice church service he couldn't afford when he was younger; however, arranging the affair turns out to be far more complicated than either Rafael or Nino imagined, and the circumstances lead to some profound changes for father, son, and the rest of the family. El Hijo de la Novia was directed by Juan Jose Campanella, who in recent years has been dividing his time between helming feature films in his native Argentina and directing episodic television in America. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
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| Another worthwhile Best Foreign Film nominee
by talltale
August 24, 2004 - 3:40 PM PDT
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4 out of 4 members found this review helpful
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| It continues to amaze me how many of the movies nominated for Best Foreign Film are truly terrific. Here's yet another that's worth seeing on a number of levels. It captures Argentina's nearly constant state of unease and monetary craziness. (And this is the country has been the "star" example of the IMF/World Bank philosophy? Time to rethink, guys.) SON OF THE BRIDE is also a reason to appreciate the enormous acting skills of Ricardo Darin. Along with Javier Bardem, this guy may be the finest of the current crop of Hispanic actors (see NINE QUEENS for further verification). He creates a "hero" with as many negative as positive qualities, and he still wins you over completely. Caveat: this movie IS a soap opera. It deals with Argentina's upper class--probing just so deep and no further--and set in luxurious locations that are photographed as glossily as anything Hollywood can turn out. But it's also crafted with such skill and feeling that, more often than not, it transcends the genre. All the performances are first-rate; the actors pull you right into their characters' personalities and problems. The script is sharp, bouncing from jokes to tears to philosophy with equal ease. By the end, you'll be glad you spent a couple of hours in the company of people you grow to understand and like, despite their foibles. (And be sure to watch the end credits to discover, at long last, the much-mentioned Dick Wilton's claim to fame.) |
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GreenCine Member Rating
(Average 7.26)
23 Votes
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