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Men In Black 3

It’s not a sequel that needed to be made, but thanks to the charm of its leads and a tone that harks back to the wit and humour of the original, it’s a pretty enjoyable trip.

Bel Ami

The excellent female support cast saves this patchy effort, which is let down by its leading man and a flat screenplay.

The Dictator

A disappointing, often repulsive and mean-spirited mess of a film with seemingly only one real criterion on its agenda: to shock and offend.

The Woman In Black

Packed with atmosphere, this old-fashioned but deftly told ghost story delivers ample chills and thrills.

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Even The Rain (Film)

by Ricky Collins | April 05, 2011 16:48 | Edited April 05, 2011 16:49

Drawing parallels between worlds, this finely acted and compelling work also offers up a timely social commentary.

Accompanied by his cast and crew, Spanish movie director Sebastian (Gael Garcia Bernal) is in the middle of a film about Christopher Columbus' first voyage to The New World. Sebastian's film is focused on the experiences of Bartolome De Las Casas, a priest who became distraught and disillusioned with the destruction and genocide that the Spanish inflicted upon the native Indian tribes. He then dedicated the rest of his life to helping their cause. Sebastian is forced to shoot his film in the highly unstable surrounds of Bolivia, which is ready to implode in civil war, after his producer, Costa (Luis Tosar), convinces him that it's far more financially viable than shooting anywhere else.

 

The acting from the cast is both believable and touching. Bernal is terrific as the dedicated filmmaker Sebastian, who has strong passions, but who also often fails to see the bigger picture. Juan Carlos Aduviri is exceptional as Daniel, a Bolivian villager cast to play a rebellious native who rises up against the Spanish in Sebastian's film - a role which draws parallels to his own life as a Bolivian citizen standing up against the government. The film does, however, occasionally dip into Hollywood-style theatrics, such as when Costa suddenly wakes up to the error of his ways and realises that he needs to help those in war torn Bolivia.

 

Overall, Even The Rain is an excellent film about filmmaking that thankfully stays clear of the shaky handheld camera effect that most other directors would likely have used with this kind of subject matter. One of the film's greatest strengths is the way in which it blurs and parallels its own narrative with that of the film that the characters are making, highlighting an underlying social commentary on third-world countries whose people are still fighting against imperialism.