Mañana a esta hora

I was reminded while watching this movie of 35 Shots of Rum, the quiet meditative film by french filmmaker Claire Denis, about a father and daughter who have struck a loving perfect balance as they live together.

Unfortunately This Time Tomorrow suffers from the comparison. Filmmaker Lina Rodriguez has made one of those minimal dialogue- static shot films which are incredibly poignant and touching when they work and a great slog to get through when they don't. And unfortunately this one doesn't work. The film is a diptych that focuses on a Colombian family of three (mother-father-teenage daughter). The first half focuses on their lives as a family and the ways in which they function and the ways in which they don't. The second focuses on what happens when a member of this family is removed and the other two must adjust to life without that person. Unfortunately the first half of the film doesn't do a great job of establishing who these people are or making us fall in love with them in a discernible way. Filmmakers like Denis or Ozu or Akerman make it seem like small-scale films about domestic life are easy to make, Rodriguez shows us how hard it is to make one that's successful.

It's too bad because Rodriguez IS a good director, you can see it in her total command of the tone of the film, but the actual scenes don't offer much in terms of building up the emotional value of the film (possibly because she allowed them to improv their dialogue based on scenes she provided). The result is naturalistic sure, but also disappointing and the 80 minutes I spent with the film felt a lot longer.