Director: Benjamin Naishtat
Writer: Benjamin Naishtat (Screenplay)
Starring: Dario Grandinetti, Andrea Frigerio, Alfredo Castro, Diego Cremonesi, Laura Grandinetti, Claudio Martinez Bel
Plot: In the Argentina pre coup d’etat, a successful lawyer starts to feel against the ropes when a secret of the past threatens his present.
Tagline – Cuando todos callan, no hay inocentes. [When everybody is silent, no one is innocent.]
Runtime: 1 Hour 49 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Verdict: All About Power
Story: Rojo starts when attorney Claudio (Grandinetti) has a clash in a restaurant with a man that he humiliates in front of the whole room, once finished his dinner with his wife Susana (Frigerio), the two clash again outside the restaurant, which sees the stranger shooting himself and Claudio dumping the man in the desert to die.
3 months-later life is still running like normal, with Claudio doing the business with clients and friends alike, while his daughter Paula (Grandinetti) is preparing for a ballet, it is here when things come back to haunt Claudio as he turns to Detective Sinclair (Castro) to help learn about the stranger from that night.
Thoughts on Rojo
Characters – Claudio is a respected attorney in his town, everybody comes to him for a mix of land ownership, injury claims and basic advice with dealing with business, when he gets asked to give up his table in a restaurant, his life is changed, because he uses his skills as a lawyer to embarrass the man, before needing to get rid of the body. He continues to live a normal life after this until in his own curiosity, finds himself turning to a detective to see if the man is still alive. Susana is the wife of Claudio, we don’t really learn too much more about her through the film, she does support her husband through the time, while making sure they are there for their daughter. Detective Sinclair is hired to investigate a missing person, the same person Claudio clashed with, he looks into everything becoming friends with Claudio, as he learns the truth about the incident. El Hippie is the man that Claudio clashes with, an unstable man that shows just how broken he is.
Performances – Dario Grandinetti is the star of this show, he gives us a confident performance where just like his character dominates the scenes. Alfredo Castro does make his detective interesting throughout of investigation. The rest of the cast do well, without getting a chance to make a big impact on the story.
Story – The story here follows a successful respected attorney that sees his life have a strange event happen which sees him wonder, just what happened on that night, while trying to keep his reputation. The story plays along the idea of an incident happening and lives just going on like nothing happened, while the attempts to try and keep things under wraps he keeps wondering what happened after he went home. The story does have a lingering feeling throughout, which does use a lot of scenes which require somebody to have the power over the events, which does become clear as the story will focus on human’s ability to have power in different situations.
Mystery – The mystery in the film comes from what happened after the altercations, did Claudio clean up or is there something more happening.
Settings – The film uses the settings to show the normal life that Claudio lives and how when he steps outside of this, we see things start to get uncomfortable for him.
Scene of the Movie – A trip to the desert.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – Not getting to learn more about Claudio’s wife, most of the time, she is just there.
Final Thoughts – This is a mystery that gives the lingering feeling to the audience as Claudio is remembering his own past event despite trying to move on with his own life.
Overall: Lingering Mystery.
Now available on digital formats from 1844 Entertainment
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