7/10
Not as Good as People Say
21 May 1999
"The Official Story" won the Academy Award for best foreign film, but I do not believe it deserved it. The film is based in Argentina when the government dictatorship was making may people very angry, let us say. While public protests and outcries are at their peak, the mother of an adopted girl named Gaby, a child of a couple who was killed by the government, finds a woman who may well be her grandmother. The film follows a very melodramatic course as the mother and father prioritize.

Overall, the film is borderline good (I gave it a seven). The brooding mother, trying to figure things out about her daughter, brought little to the table in acting, in my opinion. I found the familiar relations between the father and his kin much more interesting than the slowly developing daughter conflict. There are better films dealing with similar topics, and if this film was made in 1986, "Ran" should have crushed it for best foreign film.
2 out of 22 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

Recently Viewed