Film

What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases

Las Acacias (2011)

Director: Pablo Giorgelli

Time Out rating

Average user rating

4 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

Those in need of a flab-free winter warmer should look no further than this hushed romance that takes place in the cramped confines of a cantankerous trucker’s cab. Rubén (Germán de Silva) has agreed to allow a local woman, Jacinta (Hebe Duarte), to ride shotgun as he hauls logs from a Uruguayan backwater to Buenos Aires. That she brings along her obscenely cute newborn initially raises hackles – there’s barely a word uttered in the first 30 minutes – but as they amble on down the road and the baby gurgles and ogles adoringly, the nervy pair begin to let down their guards. Delicately paced and deceptively slight, director Pablo Giorgelli (winner of the Camera d’Or for a debut film at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival) generates sweet truth and sexual tension by keeping the style clean, acting tight and edits sparse. The will they/won’t they climax is a tad trite, but it’s a superficial nick on the façade of the film’s overall loveliness.

Author: David Jenkins

Time Out London Issue 2154: 1 – 6 December, 2011

Email Tweet Share

User reviews of this film

Eamo said...

Posted on Feb 27 2012 20:13 If he were carrying the lumber from Uruguay to Buenos Aires it would have been a very short movie.

Report as inappropriate
andrea capes said...

Posted on Jan 10 2012 20:35 A tour de force of great acting, direction and editing. Not a film for those who generally head for the latest offering from Hollywood, though, I'm afraid.

Report as inappropriate
andrea capes said...

Posted on Jan 10 2012 20:33 Great acting, direction and editing. A film that will stay with me for a long time. Not for those who head for the latest offering from Hollywood, though ,I'm afraid.

Report as inappropriate
E Vinnicombe said...

Posted on Dec 18 2011 22:34 Paraguayan backwater, not Uruguayan. This film is movie magic and escapism for those who don't meet or engage with such characters in real life. For the rest of us, it's nothing special. And no, I'm not going to praise it for capturing "added nuances". I like something different and challenging in films.

Report as inappropriate