The Other

El otro (The Other) is an Argentine film made in 2007, directed by Ariel Rotter. It's a small film about a middle-aged man, who suddenly becomes a father when his own father is dying. It is a movie about a man's identity crisis.

A middle-aged man (Julio Chávez) who is taking care of his old father finds out that his wife is pregnant. In result of this he leaves his home and goes for a "business-trip". He walks down the vacant streets of Argentina and tries to find his place. In every situation where he has to introduce himself, he uses a different name, a different identity.

The Other is a very quiet film. There's not much of dialog and not much happen in it. It's very minimalistic. But this makes the visual narrative even more important. The director let's us observe on our own and make our own interpretations.

Ten minutes in and you will notice something unusual about the camera-work. The camera isn't moving, it doesn't follow the characters. This can be interpreted philosophically. The camera stays still, it takes distance to the main character. It just shows him walking down the streets, movement, but the camera itself doesn't move. So what we see is a man walking but not really moving forward. His life stays still. He is a prisoner of this stable situation that he cannot detach from. It's quite interesting to see if he'll find a solution? Will he be able to detach from his stable life?

So who is The Other? Is it the man's other identity or is it the other father? Is it the man he never came? The shots of The Other are very beautiful. The man walking the empty streets, filling an empty chair. Beautiful film I must say. I will probably remember The Other from its minimalism: It doesn't have music at all, the dialog is marginal and it doesn't have a certain climax. I will also remember the good cinematography, which let the viewer to observe, think and get satisfied by the solutions.

The title should have been the walker. The guy expend 90% of the movie walking. He doesn't know what he wants, or what he is. Go through life stealing peoples identity for nothing. He gets no benefit, no money, nothing pretending to be another person.

No body was able to understand why he was pretending to be somebody else.

The only thing that was clear in this movie is that he love his father and was a good son. But the rest was crap.

May be director is a looser that would like to be somebody else. But what he really should do is to get a real job, because after his movie, I don't think he has a chance to make as a movie producer.

The title should have been "The walker". That was only he did walk.

There was nothing on the movie that was good. The description of the movie doesn't really comply with the plot.

The only thing that I can get from the movie is that he was a good son, but a low life terrible person.

I'm sorry that I expend my money and time, on this movie. I saw people leaving the theater in the middle of the movie. I stayed hoping that it will better....what a mistake. I got worse.

If there is a suggestion that I can make to he producer is to re-direct his life to another field, because making movies is definitely no his cup of tea

I think this is a film about life, the passing of time and getting older. It is a slow moving film, not much dialog and little action.But this is necessary to get you into the situation. Juan is a middle-age man who notices that he is getting old (he cannot see without glasses anymore). At the same time his wife is pregnant and his father is dying. These facts lead him to a journey throughout his life, an inside journey. "The other" is the man that he is not any longer, or the one that he is never going to be (other professions, other backgrounds).Life, death and time. The film is simple in appearance: Juan takes a bus and walks along the streets, meets different people, changes his name, etc. but it invites you to feel and understand his experience, that is human experience. Juan is very well performed by Julio Chávez and the characters look like people in a dream. In fact, I think that if it would have been a dream it wouldn't make any difference. i do not recommend this film to very young people, of those who like action and a clear argument. It is a film for people in the forties who like to think and discuss about important things in life.

I'm thinking maybe "Cordero de Dios" and "La mujer sin cabeza", two of the most important Argentinean films of last year, may have taken a bit of inspiration from "El otro", writer/director Ariel Rotter's tale of desperation and loneliness. The visual search, with accentuated and well framed still cameras, the apparent nothingness of the events that take place (usually confused with the term 'boring'), speak well of Rotter-in terms of a filmmaker with something to say- and recall the movies previously mentioned.

But the visual search here is clearer than in "Cordero de Dios" and the situation that leads to the 'journey' of the protagonist, Juan (Juio Chávez), is less specified than in "La mujer sin cabeza". In both aspects, "El otro" seems to be a riskier picture; a picture that is less willing to help the viewer solve its mysteries. And when I say 'journey' I mean not only the journey we see Juan experience on screen but also the one he's living inside; and don't forget a journey of the senses for the viewer…A journey where the viewer is obliged to think.

Suddenly Juan, an apparently calm lawyer, seems to run away from the comfort of his daily life. He finds out his wife's pregnant, he arrives home and we see him staring at her feet (an image that's recurrent throughout the film); then he visits his sick father (Osvaldo Bonet) and tells him he'll not be with him the next day because of a business trip. When we see Juan on the bus before leaving, he looks sweaty and tired. If you pay attention, you may conclude he's scared.

And the journey begins. Why? How is it possible? Is there something more than the sudden news? With the car crash suffered by Vero (María Onetto, who also plays a small role here), Lucrecia Martel made it easier for the viewer, delivering something/somewhere precise to depart from, and showing us her inner circle of people. About Juan we know nothing, and it's to Rotter's credit that we follow the actions of this boring-and maybe bored-man with a lot of interest for more than an hour.

I was never quite sure where Juan went for his business trip, but the movie doesn't want us to know about that particular place and its people. The only thing the movie wants from that place is that it appears as virtually deserted and has something appealing enough so Juan decides to stay for more than one day. The rest is improvisation, or it may all be a dream. Sudden convenient deaths, beautiful improbable women, two or more hotels (also virtually deserted), Juan walking in the dark night with his black suit: his fear, our fear. The morning: peace.

With this title role, Julio Chavéz completes the 'silence' trilogy started with "Extraño" and "El custodio". Far away from the pretentious objectives of the first film, and with a lot of more room to talk than in the second one, Chávez finds in Juan a natural balance and exploits it achieving the best performance of the three. Some elements are the same (we are never sure of who the man is, what his intentions are and, of course, the silence), but the director's concept is more well-rounded than in the previous pieces and it comes to light in the actor's work.

Let's never forget that cinema is many things, and making us think can't be something to underestimate. When Juan is all by himself at a funeral, without knowing exactly why he's there; when he's standing watching the coffin in his black suit, I thought about a chapter in Albert Camus' "L'Etranger". There, the main character expressed his inside thoughts of how he felt in a similar situation.

I think Juan was saying those same things, or maybe not. What do you think?