Monday, September 5, 2011

Patagonia (2010)

Patagonia (2010)
Patagonia (2010)

Genre: Drama
Director: Marc Evans
Starring: Matthew Rhys, Duffy, Nia Roberts, Nahuel Perez Biscayart, Marta Lubos, Matthew Gravelle
Duration: 113 min.
Rating: 6.5  

Summary:
The journeys of two women, one looking for her past, the other for her future. One of them travels south to north through the Welsh springtime and the other east to west through the Argentine autumn.



Patagonia is a film from Welsh director Marc Evans, with a screenplay written by Laurence Coriat.  It premiered at the 2010 Seattle International Film Festival.

The film tells two parallel stories set in the present day, with roots in the 1865 Welsh settlement Y Wladfa located in the Chubut river valley in the Patagonia region of Argentina.  One story follows young Welsh couple Gwen (Nia Roberts) and Rhys (Matthew Gravelle) who travel to Argentina on his assignment to photograph remote chapels in Patagonia.  The other follows elderly Cerys (Marta Lubos) who with her teenage neighbor Alejandro (Nahuel Perez Biscayart) who thought he was just escorting her to Buenos Aires for an operation, travels to Wales to search for the birth place of her mother, who was sent to Argentina in the 1920s when she became pregnant with Cerys.

These stories are interesting on the surface and are filmed with some glorious cinematography, however they are completely disconnected so cutting back and forth between the story lines disrupts the overall flow making this seem a lot longer than the actual running time.  They also play out rather predictably with simplistic characters and no real surprises.  The acting is decent, even Duffy is passable in her supporting role, but no one really stood out.  The end result is a bit like watching two different hour-long tourism ads at the same time, pausing one every so often to switch to the other.  Worth it only if you have an interest in Wales or the Argentine Patagonia.

Bonjour Tristesse

Patagonia (2010)

Patagonia (2010)

Patagonia (2010)

Patagonia (2010)

Patagonia (2010)

Patagonia (2010)

Patagonia (2010)

Patagonia (2010)

Patagonia (2010)

10 comments:

The Angry Lurker said...

No real interest in either but thanks anyway.

The Reel Foto said...

looks nice. )

d_4 said...

Eh.. It won't be for me.

Shutterbug said...

From the trailer, the cinematography does look beautiful! 

Hoi-Ming Ng said...

Hmmm, I feel like I've heard of this one before but neither that nor your description of the movie will drive me to see it.

blahblahblahtoby said...

all surface but no feeling? thats a pretty damning indictment of a movie that sounds like it's supposed to have some emotional resonance.

Mis2pesos said...

Downloading it right now!!

Lesya said...

Hmm, like watching two tourism ads... Not very favorable, but I remember adding it into my IMDb watchlist the other day. Usually, I'm very selective, so I think I'll see it someday anyway.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

This is one where you know how it will all play out as soon as the characters are introduced.  It's only the pretty pictures and the curious sounding Welsh language that held my interest. 

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Hopefully you will enjoy this one more than I.

Post a Comment