Caribe

...or Soap on the Beach.

What we have here is a love triangle between Vincente, his wife Abigail and her long-lost sister Irene. And then we have the tale of the American oil company preparing to despoil Costa Rica's fishing grounds, beaches and tourist economy in exchange for a few low-paying jobs.

From the moment Maya Zapata arises in the morning, turning her snow-white panties to the camera, we know this isn't going to end well (no pun initially intended). She and Vincente fall in lust, with Vincente being unable to decide between the women in his life. This plot moves predictably, with one very nice beach/lightning storm scene and a lovely lecture of Vincente by his cook Marva about "You've got to decide!...chicken or fish?!). No spoilers, but I wasn't satisfied with this story's resolution.

The bulk of the oil story must be on the cutting room floor, as it's given short shrift as far more than a minor plot element and far less than a plot. This story is based on actual Costa Rican history and worth looking at.

Neither story is done justice here. It's too bad Senor Ramirez didn't make two movies; I would have loved a documentary about the oil.

"Caribe" is not a masterpiece in any of its storytelling aspects. However, it delivers a perfectly enjoyable story, along with a magnificent cinematography. The narrative structure is set around two narrative axes, one of them embedding the other, each one having elements that relate and co-exist in excellent harmony. The story never loses the right pacing, and it shows a very good blending of the human figure with its natural environment (which is a character in itself). The acting is great, and for that we owe credit to the emerging director, Esteban Ramírez. Furthermore, the characters are very well written and masterfully complex; so, once you become familiarized with them, you can perceive their feelings without them even saying anything. I can't say I liked this picture because of all the hype it generated(in Costa Rica), but rather because of the way it really achieves in showing an interesting portrait of what happens when you interfere with the equilibrium of people's lives. Hopefully, Caribe will establish a reference for future projects in Costa Rica, as it is a very good example of nice movie making.

Caribe feels like somebody said, "Let's make a movie that shows off the splendid beauty and culture of Costa Rica! It will be a magnificent advertisement for our beautiful country." And then someone else (probably a writer) said "But it should have a serious message, too!." And then some produ$er chimed in, "No one wants to watch a boring, preachy documentary--no matter how beautiful. It needs to have plenty of sex and nudity! And while we're at it, let's throw in a bit of violence. *THAT* will make it a good movie!" There was no justification for most of the characters' major decisions. It oscillated between a character sketch of a man at the edge of breakdown and a "movie-of-the-week" with action bits thrown in.

Esteban Ramírez is the only movie maker from Costa Rica that has achieved some heavy international recognition for his work, being "Caribe" his cornerstone. The movie is based on a short tale that Ramírez and co writer Ana Istarú achieved to transform in a contemporary story with two main axis: a story of love and betrayal on one hand and a subplot that involves the resistance of some groups to explore and exploit oil fields in Costa Rica shores. The first story goes quite OK. The second, nowadays, with the fuel prices as high as they are I really don't care if foreign companies, or national ones, exploit oil or uranium if the Costa Rican people can save some money. But it was a good stroke because by doing so, to criticize the oil exploitation, the movie got the spontaneous backup from many environmentalist and Anti U.S. leftist groups. Not a masterwork it speaks very well of the producer-director Ramírez who achieved a good work for his curriculum. As far as I'm concerned he has a "10" in Costa Rica and expect to see more of his.

Costa Rica's cinema is practically non-existent, so this movie is actually a good attempt, something that could've been decent with a better director and writer, this would've been quite and upgrade for character description and their motivations. Actors are not terrible, music, editing, photography are not awful; this again brings me to my conclusion, taking into account that Costa Rica is not a movie producing country, it's a movie that's actually not that horrible but is very far from being a good movie. Costa Rica is not like Mexico, Argentina or Brazil that actually produce motion pictures. It would be of irrational thinking that Costa Rica in the next 20 years produces something like Iñarritu's "Amores Perros" or Meirrelle's "Cidade de Deus". Those Latin American movies (there are lots of other example just to make my point I mention this two)are art works due to long processes conducted by those countries that actually incentive movie production and support (financially, logistically, promotionally) domestic movie production. Costa Rica is far from that, but with "Caribe" things started going on a different direction, it seemed like everyone wanted it to triumph (a little counterproductive since it was too overrated) but at least support was shown to a local production, and that is quite a start to generate more movies form Costa Rica. A 5 is fairly decent for Caribe, maybe a 4 but then again I'm Costa Rican so 5 is fine.