Hey Folks, Harry here... Here's an early look at IMAGINING ARGENTINA! A film that'll be coming out next summer with Emma Thompson - sigh... we don't get enough movies with her these days! And as for Antonio Banderas - this guy is in everything!!!
I went to catch a screening of Imagining Argentina on a november tuesday night at Ontario Mills AMC last year.....
They told us that it was the first time it was being screened for an audience and had no credits but it had a temp score. The little sheet with the plot premise mentioned something about a theater director(Antonio Banderas) searching for his wife(Emma Thompson) who has dissapeared.
The Basic story as I remember:
(SPOILERS)
The Movie takes place in the 1970's around Argentina...and with the political climate of the times.....anyone opposing the General and such is taken away. Emma Thompson plays a journalist and she doesn't give a damn and some of her writings piss off the powers that be and she is taken away. Antonio Banderas is a Childrens Theater Director who is trying to discover what happened to his wife. While he is on his quest he realizes he has a gift....He can touch an individual who has a loved one who has disappeared and see what happened to the missing individual. The movie goes on quite the suspensful supernatural turn at this point and Banderas is soon hosting night time gatherings of people who have had loved ones who disappered. His Childrens theater group puts on a production and when the government officials who are monitoring Banderas show up to see the show....He pisses into the wind by changing part of the show to mock the evil of the general.....Next thing his daughter is taken away.....She ends up with her mother in a form of a concentration camp where the guards rape the women....It was very disturbing to see Emma Thompson fall apart while her teenage daughter is raped in the next room....All this time Antonio Banderas is searching with his visions and such....at one point he ends up at the home of an elderly jewish couple who survived The Nazis in germany.....His Daughter gets executed.....Eventually Emma Thompson escapes and after much time passes......Antonio and Emma meet and embrace at the end.
What I Liked:
Emma Thompson Is Fucking Awesome....She is the Brittish Merly Streep....Oscar worthy performance!
Antonio Banderas didn't annoy the shit out of me-The Guy acually did some decent acting....and he had a beard the whole movie.
They Got the 70's right-This movie said 70's all over....It could have been made in '75...had the right look.
History-THis was a part of history I did not know about....with a cool supernatural twist to it. Sweet!
What I didn't like:
The movie started out slow-....I wasn't sure I wanted to be in that theater in the begining.
The Temp Music-SUUUCCCKKKKED!!! They used the same theme......Over and Over...!
Not enough information- I could have used more info on the Politics of the time and why people were disapearing!
The Ending-Everything wrapped up all too easily....and was that confetti coming down when they embraced at the end?
Other notes:
I sat in on a focus group after the film....everyone was asked what the liked and didn't like and so on....one of the things they mentioned was whether we liked the Tittle Imagining Argentina or The Dissappered. I think I would take the Imagining Argentina because it makes you wonder what it was about. The Dissappeared sounds like a bad horror flick from NewLine.
All 20 people in the Focus Group were given $10 on the way out. Very Cool.
Final Thoughts:
I enjoyed this movie a great deal and I think with the right fine tunning and a great score they will have a damn fine movie. I felt like I was watching a foriegn movie and that is a good thing....The movie made me think and very few movies nowadays! If I had to tell someone what this was like I would say a cross between Devils Backbone and Harrisons Flowers.
Sign me....
Death By Gimli
