Martín (Hache)

Once or twice in a lifetime you watch a movie that strikes you exactly in the moment when you need it, and you feel completely identified with it. That happened to me today when I saw Martín (Hache), commenting on movies is a very subjective thing to do, you can like a movie even if it's a flick just because you needed someone to tell you what the movie is saying in that exact moment. Anyway, that's what this movie is about; reflection and not only for young people also for adults.

This movie has lots of social and political opinions in between lines, it's a perfect mirror of the society we live in but it doesn't give a point of view that's what's great about it!, it keeps itself objective. Like Dante would say about drugs, they make everything relative the only truth is your truth, Post-modernism!, XX Century!, there aren't any more rules to obey, society is rotten and it's a dream to try and change it, so you might as well adapt and enjoy the "good" things about life.

After you see this movie I really hope you question yourself, what is the meaning of "good". Everything is relative, remember?

At times I felt this film might have been adapted from stage-theatre, so good are the dialogues; scintillating, the right way to speak Spanish – if you will excuse the `porteño' accent so very necessary for the film. The old `maestro' Federico Luppi is about as good as in any other film I have seen him in, I suppose; Juan Diego de Botto is better than in other films of his that I have seen; but the real standing ovation is for Eusebio Ponce who plays very delicately and intelligently the philosophical homosexual, and Cecilia Roth is outstanding as the film-director's girl-friend. Though I must say that I am beginning to get accustomed to Cecilia Roth being outstanding in everything she does.

The direction is right – spot on; tight, befitting the excellent playing out of the dialogues and demanding great skill with the camera and later the person with the scissors. Adolfo Arastarain worked hard for this one: the result is a hugely satisfying piece.

Once again, as erstwhile said elsewhere in IMDb, for those who like real character-driven pieces with intelligent dialogues, this film is highly recommendable. However, for those of you with a fair knowledge of Spanish, if you are not used to the Argentinian (porteño) accent you may well have problems, such that you will need the subtitles. It is worth the effort, I can assure you: just over 8 out of 10, which is pretty high on my scale.

Aristarain strikes back again.

After the beautiful "Un lugar en el mundo", he gives us this film which is nearly a theater work.

He repeats with two beasts of Argentinian's cinema. Cecilia Roth (whom half the Spanish talking world has been in love with), and one of the five best actors of all times, FEDERICO LUPPI.

It's impossible not to think about my own father seeing his personage, with this overwhelming love for his son and yet unable to communicate with. Maybe I've seen it over five times, and still I cry each time when Federico Luppi stands on the balcony talking about the desperation of life after the idea of loosing his son misunderstood. It's the nearest you will get to understand fatherly love if you don't yet have a baby.

The plot is banal, and the filming nothing complicated, just a camera fixed to let all the attention to actors........but then, the hit. What an acting!!!!!. You hardly are going to see something similar, Luppi is a monster, a giant, he fills the screen with a strength rarely seen away.

A must see in Spanish, where you can really judge their beautiful work. The pity is that it would surprise me a lot if the titles are able to reproduce all that complicated and quick talking.

Heche (which means letter H) is a nineteen year old boy that nobody wants. After his parents' divorce, his mother's got a new life in Argentina, and there's no place for him. After he survives an 'accident' that is believed by everyone as an attempted suicide, his mother asks his father to take care of him. His father agrees, even if he still does not think he has a place for his son. Only his father's woman and his best friend, an homosexual drug addict, show affection for this boy who is lost and can't find a way to really grow up and become independent.

Being raised in a family of people who flew Argentina before I was born, I was used, kind of, to the heavy Argentinian accent that the actors have, Federico Luppi especially. However, I agree it might be difficult for other Spanish speaking people who are used to a more 'orthodox' Spanish to understand parts of the dialogs, which is a shame. Dialogues are what makes this film so interesting and touching. The things that are said contrast with the things that remained unsaid, and you can only imagine by reading the character's eyes. Alicia, for example, is almost always laughing and having fun, but her eyes are dark, worried. Her happiness is just a mask she wears to avoid realize how much she feels bad about what she is missing for, a real family, with children. She only tells Hache about that, she wishes she were his mother. Hache apparently is resigned to being a nuisance for his parents, but he wants to escape this situation by living alone, even though he's not ready yet. He uses drugs and only his father's best friend manages to keep him away from danger.

The two main actors were great. Federico Luppi's portrayal of a father who is very disappointed for his son's way of life was so real I wanted to kick him! Juan Diego Botto was perfect, too. You could think he was portraying himself. I wonder if it's a pity he lives in Spain and his works are not known across the Atlantic Ocean, nor east of the Pirineos.

When you see four times a film and you discover new contents each time, evidence: this piece is worth-. I see my own evolution with this movie, my opinion growing, I notice concepts I hadn't before.

Martin (Hache) talks about life through incredibly deep characters, specially Martin (father), whose very balanced but also extremely dark side drives spectator into a superior intellectual world, in which you are overwhelmed by messages, looks, behaviors, feelings.

All actors are superb, there is a maximum connection with their characters, you forget you are in front of a TV, flowing in the story like a fish in the water, even understanding both sides of all the great and rich arguments they have. Everything is valuable, don't miss a minute!