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Whisky (2004)

Director: Juan Pablo Rebella, Pablo Stoll

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2 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

Reviewing ‘25 Watts’, the first film by Pablo Stoll and Juan Pablo Rebella, Time Out’s Tom Charity listed Richard Linklater, Kevin Smith and early Jim Jarmusch as reference points. For the Uruguayan duo’s prize-winning second feature, Jarmusch remains relevant, but the movie is far more taciturn, elliptical, melancholy and – in its own deliciously subtle way – warm-hearted than anything by Linklater, let alone Smith. What we have here (though it’s not due to that title) is a Latin American equivalent to recent films by Aki Kaurismäki. Sixty-year-old Jacobo Köller (Andrés Pazos) owns a none too successful sock factory; till a year ago, he lived with and looked after his mother, which seems to have left him morose and devoted to routine. But now his brother Herman (Jorge Bollani), who lives with his wife in Brazil and missed mom’s funeral, plans to visit for the erection of a headstone, so Jacobo – for reasons kept to himself – asks his forewoman Marta (Mirella Pascual) to pretend to be his wife for the duration of Herman’s stay… It should be said that some of the above is deduced by yours truly rather than made explicit in the narrative; dialogue is sparse, especially in the film’s first half, and one of the movie’s pleasures stems from actively engaging with what’s shown in order to make sense of motives, cause and effect, nuance and resonance. Like this audacious, improbably expressive take on characterisation and narrative, the bone-dry comedy is as reticent as the trio portrayed. Everything’s beautifully understated; we’re allowed time to take in and reflect on what’s happening; and, notwithstanding the pervasive wry humour, the threesome are themselves treated with respect. This last virtue derives as much from the use of an un-prying, utterly static camera as from the excellent, entirely unsentimental performances. Lovely stuff.

Author: GA

Time Out London Issue 1823: July 27-August 03 2005

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User reviews of this film

Helen said...

Posted on Jun 14 2009 03:47 This tragi-comedy of sibling rivalry and lives filled with regrets, envy, simmering hostilities and understated but intense emotions is worth making the effort to watch,
The stark contrast between the monosyllabic, depressed and bitter Jacobo and his charismatic albeit rather cheesy brother Herman is hilarious. Marta is the loyal and long suffering 'foreman' who works at Jacobo's sock factory which is on the brink of closure; the two of them have long since dispensed with the need to converse and have an almost telepathic although lacklustre relationship. When Herman comes to stay for a few days Jacobo's pride and painful awareness of his empty life compels him to ask for Marta's 'help' - such is their understanding she immediately recognises that he needs a 'faux' wife and sets about organising the finer details to support the deception. Despite such an incredible favour Marta is doing, we never see a hint of appreciation from the dour Jacobo, in fact such is her lonely and predictably boring existence, she actually seems to enjoy the task. The awkward silences and palpable tension seem more of a problem for the audience than for Marta and Jacobo for whom such bizarre, non-interactions seem 'normal' - so accustomed are they to this half life they endure.

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Technoguy said...

Posted on Sep 27 2008 00:39 A heart warming gently humorous film.You engage with the characters and situation because they are't trying too hard.Still it is deconstructive,a performance
within a performance.One wonders why the brother
Jacobo cannot be straight with his other brother,but it's like he's saving face as his brother's done so well. Nothing much happens,but it's got a lovely melancholy.

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