The film is loosely based on the times and crimes of Cayetano Santos Godino, nicknamed "big-eared midget", who killed numerous children in Buenos Aires in the 1920's. Because of his young age and bizarre appearance, the case remains in Argentinean folklore, similar to Jack the Ripper in England or Jesse Pomeroy in Massachusetts, albeit rather unknown outside South-America.
The camera work is often beautiful and the acting ranges from fair to good, whereby the kid actors often convince more than the adults (which might stem from the form of Hispanic soap-opera acting that the Western audience is often not familiar with).
However, all the films weaknesses (strange, often uneven pace and the vain attempt to make the film look grander than it actually is) stem from the director, Jorge Algora, or rather his inexperience. We can almost feel the stress to prove himself and his work, the effort not to make any cinematographic mistakes, to be up there with the great directors. A more relaxed approach would have benefited. In fact, it might have benefited with the director had watched Ulli Lommels "Tenderness of the Wolves" rather than studying Fritz Langs "M" to a tit.
Young directors often feel compelled to pay tribute, even emulate their idols. The problem with those 'tributes': they are often painfully obvious. Was there really a need to have the killer whistle Grieg's "In the Hall of the Mountain King"? Wouldn't the screaming newspaper sale boys been sufficient to show that Algora is a great admirer of Fritz Lang? There are further hints at Volker Schlöndorff, Alfred Hitchcock even M.Night Shamalayans (Algora merges the basic psychic-storyline of the"Sixth Sense" with the real murders committed by Godino). All this may flatter the director but it certainly doesn't flatter his film.
A professor at a film-school once said "music is cheating". Nowhere is that more true than in this case. The soundtrack is incessant, constantly 'reminding' us of the atmosphere we're supposed to conceive. At one point you just want it to stop! We wish for a sombre moment, perhaps a tranquil scene which allows us to reflect on what we're seeing – unfortunately, this moment never comes, the soundtrack keeps booming on as if wanting to outdo Francis Ford Coppola's "Dracula".
Still, I could not call this a bad movie, only a little overambitious. I'd give it a solid 6.5 out of 10.
The camera work is often beautiful and the acting ranges from fair to good, whereby the kid actors often convince more than the adults (which might stem from the form of Hispanic soap-opera acting that the Western audience is often not familiar with).
However, all the films weaknesses (strange, often uneven pace and the vain attempt to make the film look grander than it actually is) stem from the director, Jorge Algora, or rather his inexperience. We can almost feel the stress to prove himself and his work, the effort not to make any cinematographic mistakes, to be up there with the great directors. A more relaxed approach would have benefited. In fact, it might have benefited with the director had watched Ulli Lommels "Tenderness of the Wolves" rather than studying Fritz Langs "M" to a tit.
Young directors often feel compelled to pay tribute, even emulate their idols. The problem with those 'tributes': they are often painfully obvious. Was there really a need to have the killer whistle Grieg's "In the Hall of the Mountain King"? Wouldn't the screaming newspaper sale boys been sufficient to show that Algora is a great admirer of Fritz Lang? There are further hints at Volker Schlöndorff, Alfred Hitchcock even M.Night Shamalayans (Algora merges the basic psychic-storyline of the"Sixth Sense" with the real murders committed by Godino). All this may flatter the director but it certainly doesn't flatter his film.
A professor at a film-school once said "music is cheating". Nowhere is that more true than in this case. The soundtrack is incessant, constantly 'reminding' us of the atmosphere we're supposed to conceive. At one point you just want it to stop! We wish for a sombre moment, perhaps a tranquil scene which allows us to reflect on what we're seeing – unfortunately, this moment never comes, the soundtrack keeps booming on as if wanting to outdo Francis Ford Coppola's "Dracula".
Still, I could not call this a bad movie, only a little overambitious. I'd give it a solid 6.5 out of 10.