Young(ish) writer Eugenio returns to his childhood home in a small Argentine town. At the same time, another of the town's prodigal sons also comes home: Martín, searching unsuccessfully for a long-lost relative. Homeless and short of funds, Martín starts doing odd-jobs around town and eventually knocks on Eugenio's door, looking for work. It transpires the pair knew each other as children and it isn't long before they are reliving happy childhood memories such as, er, stoning a cat to death. But Eugenio is homosexual and through his actions (spying on Martín in the bathroom; buying him clothes) it is clear he's hoping for more from the relationship than animal abuse. What will Martín's reaction be?
I could have done with director Marco Berger pulling back the camera at times; he loves the close-up so much that we never get an idea of how big are the house and grounds that much of the action takes place in because we never see so much as a single wall in full shot (this also means that in the few, mostly out-of-focus, incidences of nudity it's impossible to tell whether the viewer is seeing actors Manuel Vignau and Mateo Chiarino or uncredited body doubles). And the amount of shots that seem centred on Messrs Vignau and Chiarino's crotches is bordering on embarrassing. But the two leads do a nice job of portraying a growing relationship that seems based mainly on friendship rather than repressed desire; indeed (MAJOR SPOILER ALERT!) I'm rather glad we didn't see them consummate their relationship; somehow, that would have spoiled things.
I could have done with director Marco Berger pulling back the camera at times; he loves the close-up so much that we never get an idea of how big are the house and grounds that much of the action takes place in because we never see so much as a single wall in full shot (this also means that in the few, mostly out-of-focus, incidences of nudity it's impossible to tell whether the viewer is seeing actors Manuel Vignau and Mateo Chiarino or uncredited body doubles). And the amount of shots that seem centred on Messrs Vignau and Chiarino's crotches is bordering on embarrassing. But the two leads do a nice job of portraying a growing relationship that seems based mainly on friendship rather than repressed desire; indeed (MAJOR SPOILER ALERT!) I'm rather glad we didn't see them consummate their relationship; somehow, that would have spoiled things.