Chris Knipp Writing: Movies, Politics, Art


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PostPosted: Sun Apr 12, 2015 11:35 am 
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YANET MOJICA AND GERALDINE CHAPLIN IN SAND DOLLARS

Sexual tourism revisited

This little film, into which Geraldine Chaplin put her enthusiasm and her passion and sponsorship, is a straightforward treatment of the theme of sexual tourism. Though set in the Dominican Republic today instead of Haiti in the Seventies, it brings to mind Laurent Cantet's 2006 Heading South/Vers le sud (R-V 2006). Cantet treats the subject on a wider social scale: a handful of local amateur sex workers and bourgeois ladies from the North, psychological and political implications, dangers and setbacks. Sand Dollars , based on a novel in French by the prolific Jean-Noël Pancrazi , is like a simpler, more basic handbook on the theme, treating only one couple and the sex worker's boyfriend, the rich lady's local well-off acquaintances and her estranged son vaguely in the distance, no look at socioeconomics or history. Instead the widescreen cinematography, also simple, is tasteful and beautiful (if a bit heavy on the contre jour shots at first). And there's a sense of love on both sides, all three sides, actually. The lady loves the girl, or cares for her a lot anyway; the girl cares for the lady, and the boy loves the girl. This is good to know. But it doesn't change anything and nicely done as Sand Dollars is, as right and fearless as Geraldine Chaplin is in this role, it's hard to see that the film adds profoundly to our knowledge or emotional experience.

What's different here is the frequent reference to Noeli (Yanet Mojica) and Yeremi (Ricardo Ariel Toribio) as a couple; Noeli trades her favors informally to foreigners on the beach, like the departing Frenchman (Bernard Bizel) who gives her a chain that she promptly has Yemeni sell. Noeli and Yemeni are a pair, alright. Slim and youthful looking, they're so well-matched they look like milk chocolate Dominican Ken and Barbie dolls. But their love isn't particularly passionate; in fact this film goes easy on the sex, showing Noeli and and the much older Anne (Chaplin) in each others' arms and stopping there. It's presumed that Anne adores Noeli, since she keeps coming back, spends long periods in the country, and has been in this "relationship" for three years. Brief conversations between Anne and gay friend Thomas (Hoyt Rogers) and similarly inclined new young friend Goya (Maria Gabriella Bonetti) help fill us in on plans and context.

Yes, Anne "loves" Noeli, but does the length of time mean much beside the fact that Anne has nothing she wants to do back in Europe? There may be love here but Noeli, Anne, and Yemeni (who Noeli pretends, convincingly, is her "brother"), don't seem much bothered by jealousy. The trouble is that there are no consequences here, and in such matters there are always consequences, or at least dedicated efforts to avoid them. The real story would happen when somebody does something, not just Noeli disappearing for a while or Anne threatening to leave, but when Anne takes Noeli back to France, which is left up in the air. Sand Dollars is a pretty bauble, referring to matters treated more seriously elsewhere.

Sand Dollars/Dólares de arena, 80 mins., in Spanish, English, and French, debuted at Toronto; other festivals, especially in the US and Latin America. The filmmakers are a couple, Laura Amelia Guzmán Dominican, Israel Cárdenas Mexican. Screened for this review as part of the April 23- May 7, 2015 San Francisco International Film Festival, showings April 27 (Clay), April 29 (Kabuki Sundance).

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