A young woman, Mona (Romina Pinto), applies for a job as governess to look after and teach two kids who live in a rural part of Argentina. The kids' parents passed away a couple of years ago. The children live with their housekeeper in a manor belonging to their uncle (Julio Mendez). He runs a medical practice in the city and is too busy to look after his nephew and niece. Mona has studied psychology and worked a short while in a Kindergarten. This would be her first permanent position. Mona is over the moon when she hears that she got the job.
Mona is in for a surprise; the children are feral, running wild and are poorly educated. They could scarcely read. Àngel (Valentino Vinco) and his sister Ema (Malena Alonso) run around the property half-clothed, and that is really bothering Mona. Being nude in the open is unnatural, she believes. She is determined that it will have to change. It does not seem to bother the housekeeper, Clara (Cristina Maresca) though.
One evening Mona spots a man standing on the lawn, looking at the house. It resembles the man on the framed photograph, posing with Àngel, she saw earlier in the house. She asks the housekeeper about this man, and learns to her shock that it is a photograph of the gardener, who died a couple of years ago. The gardener and Àngel were apparently close. Mona, with her quasi-psychological background is convinced that the gardener must have molested Àngel at some stage, and that this is the reason why the lad is acting so strangely. Mona's 'do-gooder', hypocritical and know-all approach to 'help' the children gathers momentum as the film progresses. But Mona could never foresee how things would eventually turn out. (And neither could this reviewer, who was in for a few surprises too!)
This clever film, part psychological drama, part gothic thriller, presents comments on several important issues: Innocence can be destroyed by interfering hypocritical 'moralists' who do more harm than good. It also highlights the right to be natural and yourself, even to be a non-conformist, irrespective what others may think. There are also other elements in the film: the role of dolls and birds, and their use as allegory, the relationship between brother and sister, between Àngel and his friend, and the tragic history of the housekeeper's son.
The cinematography is top class, from the surreal under water scenes to the indoor shots, where a gothic atmosphere is created by ramshackled walls, broken windows and bats hanging from the rafters. The soundtrack has an ominous feel to it, and drags the viewer relentlessly along. Apart from an excellent script, the other outstanding element of the film is the acting. I found the acting superb, be it the gentle housekeeper with her secrets, the over-zealous Mona or the exuberant Àngel and Ema. 'La Tutora' is a complex, intelligent film with a lot of food for though, and in my view Iván Noel's best to date. This is a film that I will watch again. I score this film an excellent 9.5/10.
