Reviews

Most embarrassingly stupid, cringe-worthy, ludicrous and nausea-inducing movie I've seen in a while.

I don't have much to say about it, but since the site demands more than 600 characters in a review, I'd say that I don't know who could watch this and not be rolling their eyes constantly: a happy-go-lucky cleaning lady with a heart of gold, an unabashed optimistic attitude and an incredible good luck embarks in a ridiculous journey to acquire a Dior dress, and while she is at it, she will fix the lives of everyone around her, and even save Christian Dior from going broke...in a week!

It should be advertised as fantasy, and even then, it would still be too silly and unbelievable.

How this movie got such a high rating is beyond me, but that seems to be the trend in IMDb...

A little movie with a solid premise, which, admittely, could have used some reworking, but still has its enjoyable moments, albeit some very awkward ones (the fight with the clowns?).

Its comedic bits are here and there and clearly land better when the actors are left to work free from the constraints of the script.

What I liked the best is that the movie refrains from visiting some obvious places and avoids some (but not all) cliches: i.e. When we finally meet Benito's biological father, he is not (despite being played by 90's hearthrob Gabriel Corrado) a womanizer or a jerk, he is just a normal guy, with a family of his own, probably completely unaware of the fact that he had a son with Silvina.

Likewise, Silvina is not a victim of abandonment or domestic violence, but a normal woman who made her choices and assumed the consequences, "el Griego" is an absentminded guy completely absorbed by his declaining career as a tv producer, but not a complete jerk; they are normal people with normal people problems.

It was nice to see some of the heavywheights of Argentinian cinema or TV (Silveyra, Gioia, Peretti, Luque, etc.), even if some of their roles are little more than cameos.

Oreiro and Sbaraglia are good, while is the latter the one that elevates the material to something quite better than it really is.

The kid is cute but not engaging enough,the movie would have benefitted from a better actor in the role of Benito.

All in all, quite watchable, with some genuinely entertaining moments.

Admittedly, I haven't read the comics. But a few days ago I rewatched all the MCU films in chronological order, so I have them fairly fresh in my memory. All of them have their ups and downs, but for me the key is their entertainment factor, combining the superhero lore with some deep emotional moments and also some good comedic bits. On that base, my favourite installments are Guardians of The Galaxy, Thor Ragnarok, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.

That being said, I can't see the appeal that many people see in Black Widow. I guess it's a matter of personal expectations and I guess I was expecting something darker, stronger, more tormented, that would get into the skin of the character, which, admittely, is not one of my favourites of the MCU. Not having read the comics that inspired them, and judging solely from the movies, BW is quite limited to be the pretty, sexy, if cold, female presence. She has no super powers that we are aware of, other than her undeniable beauty (although sometimes she seems to have a disproportionate strength for her size) and an amazing capacity to calm the Hulk. A lot of cartwheeling and pouting, but little else. I wonder how popular the character would be, if it wasn't portrayed by the amazing Scarlett Johansson.

If, like me, you want to know more about Nat's life before the Avengers, you won't find much in this film. We get to know little about her past, through glimpses about her indoctrination as a Russian ¿spy?, Red Sparrow style, which is mostly told and not showed. The movie focuses more in the dynamics of her stranged and bizarre family, but this is also showed passingly. We don't get to see how she grew up or how she turned up to be so skilled and lethal.

I was also expecting to know more about her relationship with Hawkeye and what transpired in Budapest, but I guess we will never know.

And then there is Florence Pugh, an overrated actress, if you ask me. She is not, by no means, a bad actress, but she is certainly no Meryl Streep. I don't understand all the praise she is getting.

Her character in BW has the spotlight because that's Disney's marketing choice, but it is underdeveloped. We don't know anything about her or her motivations, other than "I want to save the rest of the BW". For someone who has spend almost all of her life under a rigorous and cruel training and indoctrination, she seems quite childish and immature. And of course, there's no hint of the seductive skills attributed to a female Russian spy, because, you know, this is Disney.

Scarlett, by the way, seems to be bored and tired of her character and there are some scenes when she seems to be on autopilot. It is barely noticeable, though, since she is such a great actress, altough this kind of films are clearly not the vehicle to highlight her acting chops.

As for action lovers, there are a couple of motorcycle chases and some fights, but don't expect to be surprised or amazed by any of them. There are some implausible scenes that require an absolute suspension of disbelief and that, frankly, look quite ridiculous.

In short, I wasn't moved or shocked, there are no strong emotional moments or powerful scenes to remember, no shocking revelations or game-changing discoveries regarding the character. I still feel like BW owes her fan love and adoration only to Scarlett Johansson and this film has done nothing to change that perception.

Special mention for the debatable casting choices (in spoiler)

Spoiler

The villain, really? Don't get me wrong, Ray Winstone is a wonderful actor, but his days of inspiring fear are gone. You will expect someone who elicits a sense of inminent danger and evil or, at least, someone with surprise/ novelty value, as the previous MCU films had (Mads Mikkelsen, Josh Brolin, Tom Hiddleston, Andy Serkis, Jake Gyllenhaal , Hugo Weaving, Cate Blanchett, to name a few).

David Harbour as comic relief becomes annoying after 5 minutes and Rachel Weisz looks sleep deprived. The Russian accents are caricature level.

And I don't even want to start with Taskmaster, but I'll just say that Olga Kurylenko has finally found a role that suits her acting skills.

In another note, what's with all the shots of SJ's rear end, for no apparent purpose? I get it, she's hot, but it feels like a poor stylistic resource. Thank God BW is directed by a woman ...

OMG, what have I just watched? I literally hated every single frame of this movie. Disgusting characters doing the most unbeliavable things in the most ridiculous ways, and just when you think that the story can't be more stupid, unrealistic and nonsensical...

SPOILER ALERT

... whoever wrote this mess decides to blatantly trump the audience with the most farfetched "twist" ever... that's the real LIE, and one that will equally annoy and offend the audience and should seriously embarrass everyone involved in this monstrosity of a movie.