Along with Mullholland Drive, the best movie I've seen this year. And it similarly has the surprise ending which makes one reevaluate the whole experience.
SPOILERS ALERT! If you haven't seen this movie, stop reading and go rent it. Renting is especially practical since then you will be able to piece the real story afterwards by viewing the key scenes again.
The movie worked for me on at least three levels. The surface layer of a coming-of-age road-movie with good dialogue and frank treatment of sex is fairly good -- well acted, beautifully shot, etc.
One level down is the real Mexico. I liked this one better; with the bits and pieces of information scattered around, one can still get a pretty good sense about the social contrasts in Mexico. A whole "Germinal" is hidden in these hints, and this would have been a pretty good movie even if that was all there was to it.
But hidden even deeper is a grand tragedy on the scale of Ancient Greeks. (Some previous comments described it as a melodrama, but this was subtle and so craftily done that it is tragedy for me :) What would you do if you had only a month to live? Luisa has a luxury of an unhappy marriage and a cheating husband away from home (whom she still cares about) and an opportunity to have some good time with two teenage boys. But does she have the right to be manipulative only because she is dying? Is she doing this just to have a good time or she is trying to continue living in their memory, as the scene with the toy of little Luisita suggests?...
In any case, for me this is a story about Luisa and her choices. The boys, the road and the beach are only props...
SPOILERS ALERT! If you haven't seen this movie, stop reading and go rent it. Renting is especially practical since then you will be able to piece the real story afterwards by viewing the key scenes again.
The movie worked for me on at least three levels. The surface layer of a coming-of-age road-movie with good dialogue and frank treatment of sex is fairly good -- well acted, beautifully shot, etc.
One level down is the real Mexico. I liked this one better; with the bits and pieces of information scattered around, one can still get a pretty good sense about the social contrasts in Mexico. A whole "Germinal" is hidden in these hints, and this would have been a pretty good movie even if that was all there was to it.
But hidden even deeper is a grand tragedy on the scale of Ancient Greeks. (Some previous comments described it as a melodrama, but this was subtle and so craftily done that it is tragedy for me :) What would you do if you had only a month to live? Luisa has a luxury of an unhappy marriage and a cheating husband away from home (whom she still cares about) and an opportunity to have some good time with two teenage boys. But does she have the right to be manipulative only because she is dying? Is she doing this just to have a good time or she is trying to continue living in their memory, as the scene with the toy of little Luisita suggests?...
In any case, for me this is a story about Luisa and her choices. The boys, the road and the beach are only props...