El Faro (1998)

Winner of numerous awards including a Spanish Goya for Best Spanish Language Film, this must-see film couples contemporary social themes with beautiful cinematography buoyed by an outstanding ensemble cast of some of Argentina's best actors of our time. The highway is deserted and dark when a violent accident occurs on the highway between a truck and a car. Among the twisted car metal pieces are the motionless bodies of a family: the father, the mother, a small boy and two bodies of a seventeen year old girl and her sister of eight. The ambulance arrives, and it is clear that only the two sisters Aetna and Carmela are still alive. From here on, both of them, only having each other, will have to face the uncertain destiny that awaits them. Their travels take them from Villa Victoria, the town they were born in, to Belen, at the other side of Uruguay, later to Colonia, Montevideo, San Ignacio, with its beautiful lighthouse, where they spend fleeting moments of happiness with Andy, a charming character, whom Carmela falls in love with and with whom she suffers her worse heartbreak when discovers his true sexual preference. Finally once they seem to have recovered and gotten their lives in order, Carmela suddenly and unexpectedly manifests her opposition with a passionate sense of over protectiveness, which ends in a painful confrontation that could result in the inevitable separation of the these two sisters who have endured so much together.

What a waste of time!

I had great expectations for this movie given the excellent cast. However, I found that it is little more than a shameless tear-jerker that doesn't even begin to accomplish that. Ricardo Darin is under-utilized as he seldom has any scenes, and this is unforgivable in itself as he is clearly the most talented actor in the movie. No plot (other than again, the cheap tear-jerking repeated situations); no flow (booooring beyond comprehension); no climax (what a lame ending!).

Don't waste your time with this movie and instead, enjoy some of Darin's other movies where he IS actually allowed to have a scene or two. January 18, 2008

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