ALEJANDRO RAMIREZ-MUNOZ AND XIMENA AYALA IN THE AMAZING CATFISH

Togetherness, sought by an outsider

The premise of the Mexican director Claudia Sainte-Luce's debut is that Claudia (Ximena Ayala), an exceptionally lonely, isolated young woman, meets a sick lady and her family when she's in the hospital to have her appendix removed, and she latches onto them for the company she's never had. Given that Martha (Lisa Owen), her hospital neighbor, is seriously ill, and there is no father around, and at least two of the kids are school age, one a mere tyke, Claudia comes in handy at times staying with Martha at the hospital, since she is constantly in and out, or accompanying the pretty Mariana (Andrea Baeza) and little Armando (Alejandro Ramírez-Muñoz) by bus to school. Fat-girl Wendy is insecure and a little angry. "Why do you stay with us?" she asks Claudia, "Because it makes you happy?" Most responsible is Ale (Sonia Franco), 25, the eldest daughter. Catfish is about the busy energy of the four siblings as they interact with each other and with their mom -- who despite her condition, always has a weary smile and a positive attitude, which they all could use, especially Claudia. This is a claustrophobic tale, and as Jay Weissberg of Variety wrote at Locarno, if you find the family charming the film may strike you as sweet and touching, but if they only seem kooky -- or perhaps a sad mess -- you will reject everything.

To do Sainte-Luce credit, she doesn't make anything too simple, and every little scene has a distinctive texture, even though she never tells us much about her protagonist. Claudia only tells Martha privately (the children are not to know) that she has been "alone" since the age of two, when her mother died, and knows nothing of her father. How she was raised and how she came to be working in a large supermarket, how she has lived up to now, is a mystery, and there isn't much depth to the children either. Ale is rarely heard from; she has too much responsibility to talk about herself. (And yet the madness of the family, its tendency to go off in wrong directions, shows that it lacks firm guidance.) Armando is just a cute little kid. Mariana just thinks of her hair and makeup. Wendy has a "healing" class, and of course body issues; but she is a presence, a big presence. Martha has had three men in her life. These are not profound revelations. The real subject is the group dynamic, and how for Claudia, who has been so utterly deprived, this dynamic can seem incredibly warm and enveloping even though nothing here is easy, and tragedy is coming, since Martha will die, infected with a fatal illness she got from the last, best man in her life, who died of it himself years before.

The busy craziness of a family is best captured in the early scenes, when they pick up Claudia, walking home after her operation, and Claudia can't seem to pull herself away from their cluttered house and nonstop bantering, tussling talk. With some difficulty Sainte-Luce juggles the story line of Claudia's job with that of the family with their various chores -- taking Martha to and from the hospital, staying with her there, minding the younger kids. Armando's job is doing the laundry and washing up, which of course he doesn't always remember to do: he's just a kid. What exactly is happening with Claudia's job? She's demoted to selling from a cart and being paid only by what she sells at the market, punishment for missing too many days when she got caught up in the family's life after her appendectomy. Christmas is coming, and a whole sequence of a Christmas party at work that Claudia takes Mariana and Armando to, with Mariana getting drunk on rum, is well done and adds flavor, yet seems also somewhat irrelevant.

Something more decisive has to happen, and Martha, languishing in the hospital yet still a warm spirit, insists they all need a vacation. So despite objections from Ale, they all go to the beach for a couple of days, leading to a Little Miss Sunshine shot by the roadside with their shiny little yellow VW bug piled high on the roof with baggage; and Armando has brought the fish Claudia has given him. They bury Martha in the sand, dodge sunburn and mosquito bites, end the day with a merry picnic dinner -- till it's all cut short when Martha becomes very ill and they must drive back. This is where Armando, alone with Claudia, very justifiably cries. If there has been an allusion to Little Miss Sunshine it's a reminder that this movie is far more sentimental and sad.

But Catfish maintains a lively rhythm, that hustle and bustle poor Claudia finds so comforting as an antidote to her previously empty and joyless life. (She has to learn to laugh; but as Martha points out, she doesn't even smile.) Sainte-Luce, whose subtly feminine point of view is clear -- the only male is a little boy, has lucked out with the illustrious French cinematographer Agnès Godard as her d.p., who brings subtlety and beauty to every shot. The sound design is sometimes allusive and surprising, but understated, and there is hardly ever any music: the voices of the girls provide their own music.

The Amazing Catfish, Los insólitos pesces gato, 85 mins., debuted and won the Youth Prize at Locarno, and was included in the Discovery section at Toronto, with some other festivals following. There has been a theatrical release in the Netherlands and is coming in Germany and France 8 and 28 May 2014 respectively. Screened for this review as part of the San Francisco International Film Festival, 24 Apr.-4 May 2014. Theatrical release in France Wed., 28 May 2014. Opens 20 June 2014 in Los Angeles, 13 June NYC. On DVD (Strand Releasing) in the US 29 July 2014.

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©Chris Knipp. Blog: http://chrisknipp.blogspot.com/.