After codirecting with Federico Godfrid that gem of a film called La Tigra, Chaco (2009) director Juan Sasiaín retakes the theme of the going-ons in a small town, in this case Choele, short for Choele Choel, 1000 km southwest of Buenos Aires in the northernmost reaches of Patagonia. Choele extends for 30 blocks along the Rio Negro. The landscapes are pleasant: lush greenery, the wide, deceptively quiet river, the long straight lines of equally spaced trees that traverse the fields and act as windbreaks.
Coco (Lautaro Murray), 11 years old, is visiting his father, auto mechanic and handyman Daniel.(Leonardo Sbaraglia). Daniel and Coco's mother are separated and Coco lives with her. She is due to visit to arrange details of the separation, but Coco has high hopes that his parents will reconcile. He whiles away the time playing with a boy and a girl his age, friends from early childhood. Daniel lives with Kimey (Guadalupe Docampo), a girl half his age. She is at first identified as helping with the house chores, but Coco soon learns that she is more than a domestic. Coco resents Kimey, but he is also fascinated and has long conversations with her where she reveals a childish streak that makes connection easier.
In La Tigra the whole town was a participant in the plot: we learned the townspeople's daily pursuits, their social rituals, their Saturday night amusements. In contrast, we don't glean much about Choele's people; only a town butcher has a few lines of dialogue. We don't even see much except for a few generic houses and the town and environs function just as a painted backdrop. In the end, I felt that the whole story told in this way was somewhat thin for a feature length movie. But is an entertaining watch anyway. Cinematography is excellent and acting is first rate both from the professionals and the beginners (this is the first movie credit for Murray).
