Pablo O. Scholz
07/28/2021 8:20 PM
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Updated 07/28/2021 20:30
With
M. Night Shyamalan
I have mixed feelings.
I love them and defend
Sixth Sense
,
The protégé
,
Fragmented
and
The guests
, I don't understand how he did
The End of Time
and
After Earth
.
When I read that
Viejos
had produced it himself, I was delighted.
I remembered that
The guests
, with a very low budget (5 million dollars!), Made it after blockbusters and in which they only bet on the ingenuity of the plot, without a super cast or disproportionate costs, it was almost round.
I would not say that I rubbed my hands, but I set out to see
Old
, yes, with desire.
"Viejos" was the most watched movie this weekend in its run in North America.
Photo UIP
Good.
I do not understand why the poster already reveals something important in the plot, so when you enter the cinema there will no longer be such a surprise.
Nor that the graphic novel on which it is based was super popular.
Gael García Bernal, the father of the family on the beach.
Photo UIP
Like any Shyamalan movie, it has a way of hooking us and towards the end there is like a lady's gambit.
There he explains what seemed inexplicable.
Or almost.
The plot
Gael García Bernal
is the
pater familiae
who arrives at an island resort that his wife (Vicky Krieps, from
The Phantom Thread
) hired online.
They are with their two children, young Trent (Nolan River), 6 years old, and Maddox (Alexa Swinton), 11. The couple is not having a good time, the breakup is more than an exit, although they get along, It shows that there was love and the holiday weekend will serve, without the children knowing, as a farewell.
Rufus Sewell ("the legend of Zorro").
Photo UIP
The hotel manager has a surprise in store for you.
There is a beach, a bit far from the resort, on the other side of the island, which is like a paradise, he tells them.
He also tells them that he only invites them to spend the day there, because they fell in love with him, and that a driver will take them there.
The one who drives is M. Night Shyamalan, who always reserves a cameo or something else in the films he directs.
He doesn't do it to save a cachet.
Do not.
But, and there is always a but, another family (a couple, a little girl and the grandmother) joins the family in the minibus.
With some excuse, the driver does not accompany them to the beach itself, where they arrive, laden with food, crossing a sort of rock cave.
Upon reaching the beach, spectacular, there is another man.
And then another couple will join.
M. Night Shyamalan reserved - as always - a role in the film.
Photo UIP
And, little by little, things will start to get out of hand.
I am not going to reveal here what happens on the beach of the pretty island.
Vicky Krieps ("The Phantom Thread"), Gael's wife.
Photo UIP
Except that a kind of unfortunate event occurs, which questions all logically, physically and anatomically speaking, and that, apparently, none of them can leave the beach.
Shyamalan only spent money on the visual effects, since the hotel where he filmed in the Dominican Republic exists, and the beach, too.
Is Aaron Pierre's character ("The Underground Railroad") hiding something?
Photo UIP
There are movies in which some elements may be silly to some viewers.
Some of Shyamalan have them - none of the four I mentioned at the beginning - and
Viejos
tries to balance, balancing explanatory phrases with achieved effects.
Anyway, that Old Men will continue to separate those who love and hate the director.
And others will gladly leave us little, but always trusting that a better one will come.
And every so often, he gets one.
"Old"
Good
Mystery.
USA, 2021.
Original title:
Old
.
108 ', SAM 13.
From:
M. Night Shyamalan.
With:
Gael García Bernal, Vicky Krieps, Rufus Sewell.
Rooms:
Cinemark Palermo, Cinépolis Recoleta, Showcase Belgrano, Hoyts Unicenter.
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