Film
Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in Chicago, plus articles, trailers and more
- Home
- Box Office
- Listings
- Trailers
- Features
Bookmark this page- Edition:
Abel (2009)
Director: Diego Luna
Movie review
From Time Out London
Returning home to mum Cecilia, teenage sister Selene and younger brother Paul after two mute years in a psychiatric clinic – he couldn’t cope with dad no longer being around – nine-year-old Abel needs to display some semblance of normality or he’ll probably be sent to an institution in Mexico City. Cecilia advises his siblings to be patient…and sure enough, Abel eventually starts speaking again – albeit as if he’s his father…Mexican actor Diego Luna’s first fiction feature as director confirms the promise of his boxing documentary ‘Chávez’. Though the parallel cutting towards the climax is a little pat, he tells his intriguingly Oedipal story swiftly and clearly, shifts deftly between the comic and dramatic modes and makes the wide ’Scope format eloquent and attractive.
Perhaps unsurprisingly (he began acting professionally in his early teens), Luna also elicits fine performances from his cast, not least from real-life brothers Christopher and Gerardo Ruiz-Esparza as Abel and Paul. The result is a pleasingly unsentimental but affecting study of a kid whose behaviour is both a consequence of and a catalyst for family tensions fuelled by outmoded notions of masculinity. Engrossing, intelligent fare.
Author: Geoff Andrew
Time Out London issue 2107, Jan 6-12 2011
Cast & crew
Director: Diego Luna
Cast: Christopher Ruiz-Esparza, Gerardo Ruiz- Esparza, Karina Gidi
Duration: 85 mins
Features
Gray's anatomy
James Gray wants to push buttons—again.
The next big thing?
Gigantic Releasing tries to rethink indie distribution…without movie theaters.
Red Diva: Lyubov Orlova, First Lady of Soviet Cinema
So you think you can dance, comrade?
Puppet master
Coraline director Henry Selick takes stop-motion animation into 3-D.
Socratic method
Laurent Cantet's approach on the set matches the message of his film.
Wander woman
Kelly Reichardt's Wendy and Lucy puts a Bush-era spin on the road movie.
Oscars
Read our interviews with the nominees, our reviews of the nominated films and more.
What do you think?
Post your review now