Rising to circumstance

Taratuto's The Reconstruction is the austere, tight-lipped portrait of a man's late-blooming moral and emotional rebirth, revolving wholly around the appealingly haggard, bird-beaked actor Diego Peretti. It's all the more remarkable since these two have formerly collaborated only on light, talky romantic comedies like the 2004 It’s Not You, It’s Me and the 2007 Who Says It’s Easy? And these were set in the pair's native Buenos Aires, whereas this new film takes them out of their comfort zone into the nether regions of Patagonia, where a man (or a woman too) discovers what stuff he's really made of. Edoardo (Peretti) is a tough, driven, formidable oil company field boss, who travels around in the country's extreme south and makes things happen. A phone call from an old friend and work buddy is going to take him to Ushuaia, the furthermost town in Patagonia, to help out on some unspecified task, instead of taking his vacation. His friend Mario, played by Alfredo Casero, also by trade normally a comedian, among other things, a roly-polly chap who owns and runs a big shop full of mysterious geegaws now, has a wife and two two daughters. Mario's almost as mysterious as Edoardo. Eventually we learn why.

Before Edoardo gets down there to see Mario and his family, the film deftly paints a portrait of what he's like now. He is so heedless and brutal he drives by a young woman out on the road, evidently the survivor of a bad car accident, wildly gesturing and calling for help. He's brusque with associates, showing zero charm and replying only when necessary, though when he does speak, what he says is quite routine and does the job. With Mario's family, Edoardo is almost comically oddball. He keeps his fingerless gloves on even at the dinner table, and eats meat and salad with his hands. Mario's wife Andrea (Claudia Fontan, in a strong performance), and two daughters, insecure teenager Cata (Eugenia Aguilar) and Ana (Maria Casali) -- who've all seen him before, it turns out much later, but so long ago the girls were too small to remember -- aren't exactly impressed. One daughter calls his way of eating "gross." But Mario says he needs somebody to take over his business while he goes in for something medical he doesn't specify, a "difficult test," and he's convinced Edoardo is the only one who can do this for him, so he tells Edoardo. And this the women accept.

Who are these men? We never quite fully know. But somehow the unique frontier country of Patagonia suits them both. And somehow Patagonia is an environment in which distinctive cinema can bloom, as amply demonstrated by the films of Carlos Sorin. Mario is as warm and embracing -- he adores his daughters and treats them like miraculous little girls -- and ebullient and welcoming as Edoard is cold and craggy. Yet they both have in common this silence and mystery that's both off-putting and reassuringly macho. Edoardo's an oddball and it's obvious he must have some deep wound in his past. But his peculiarity is also assurance that convention won't ever keep him from being strong and doing what needs to be done. But what happens with Mario's test is a test for him too.

We know what's coming: something radical that will shake Edoardo out of his shell and reawaken his inner humanity. We just don't know exactly how it's going to come. The beauty of Taratuto and Peretti's collaboration (very much one, since they coscripted the film) is not the "what" of the story but the "how," its confident style, born out of Peretti's innate physicality and the cold beauty of the snowy Patagonian winter landscape. Visuals are fine here, with many closeups on Peretti telling all that needs to be told. Notably two delicate shots, both through curtains, first in a hospital room, then in a shower, show how very fine and subtle the vision is here, and how quietly and elegantly it knows how to tease out profound emotion. The payoffs are simple too, hugs, a smile, a phone call. But they're like springtime after long winter.

The Reconstruction/La reconstrucción, 93 mins., debuted at Venice (see Hollywood Reporter's favorable review by Jonathan Holland: he knows the earlier comedies, which I don't). It won awards at Havana (best actor), Valladolid (FIPRESCI), and Abu Dhabi (best actor), Flanders Latin American Festival (best actor), and nominations elsewhere for best actor, actress, direction, editing, cinematography, art direction. Screened for this review as part of the 2014 San Francisco International Film Festival (24 Apr.-4 May).

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