Rating: B-
Dir: Mariano Cohn.
Star: Peter Lanzani, Dady Brieva, Luis Brandoni.
This starts off as a rough approximation of Phone Booth, before morphing into Falling Down in the final stretch. It takes place in a particularly crime-plagued Argentinian neighbourhood, where thief Ciro (Lanzani) is on the prowl, looking for vehicles to plunder. Except, to borrow a quote, “Broke into the wrong goddamn rec room car, didn’t ya, you bastard!” For his target turns out to be owned by a doctor, Enrique (Brieva), who has already been the victim on twenty-eight previous occasions. There isn’t going to be a twenty-ninth. He has transformed the vehicle into a high-tech, remote-controlled Venus Flytrap, with bulletproof glass and impenetrable panels. He is now intent on teaching Ciro the error of his larcenous ways.
It’s an interesting set-up, and we’re pulled in by a desire to discover Enrique’s motivations – turns out, he doesn’t have much to lose by going full techno-vigilante. Despite that, we’re not necessarily intended to be on his side. Though personally, Ciro never came over particularly sympathetically: for some reason, I lost a lot of sympathy for him when he unnecessarily pissed all over the back seat. Ok, robbing as a career choice is one thing; you don’t have to be a dick about it though. Subsequent events also suggest he has a callous indifference to life – particularly that of other people. While he may not consider himself a murderer, his actions certainly have been a factor in several people entering a state of unaliveness.
I do think the film could have used a bit more invention in this department. Enrique could have installed cameras in the car, for example. Instead, there really is only so much you can do, with a man locked in a car. This clears its plate in that department, then spins its wheels (as it were) for a bit, whistling and looking around. Fortunately, just when my interest was flagging, Enrique makes a very dramatic entrance on the scene, as opposed to being just a disembodied, if vaguely threatening, voice on the phone. That kicks things into a new phase, and subsequent events attract attention. This comes not just from the cops, but also the local residents and the media, sparking a debate about vigilante justice.
It is here perhaps where things get most thought provoking, with a retired police mediator (Brandoni) brought out of retirement to try and broker a peaceful end to the tense situation. The script does seem to be trying to strike a balance, giving Ciro almost heroic lines like, “This place is full of poor people, with laws made by rich people for rich people. I will not obey them, not even if they gun me down.” It never quite worked for me, as discussed above, coming over more as a post facto justification for his selfish acts. My sympathies were definitely more with the doctor, on the side of justice, if not necessarily the law. Or maybe I’m just a cryptofascist vigilante at heart.