Salvajes

Rating:
Summary: Critical Issues, Some Fine Actors, But Ultimately a Mishmash
Review: SALVAJES ("Savages") is one of those films that makes you want it to succeed. The story takes place in Spain and involves a group of 'skinheads' who are out to rid their country of unwanted immigrants and in doing so give reference to ethnic cleansing that always raises a heinous specter. Marisa Paredes, always an excellent actress, tries valiantly to make the best of her role as a 50s-something mother of two sons involved in the beating of an African American man. She becomes romantically involved with the policeman assigned to the investigation and who proves to have bizarre, edgy behaviors himself. The filming is by hand held camera which in the beating and interrogation scenes provides only an abstraction of motion that, gratefully, spares us the gore, but at the same time creates a sense of the film falling apart. The actors are a mixed bag: good performances form Imanol Arias, Manuel Moron and Roger Casamjor but only adequate ones from the fairly large supporting cast. The credits (while completely unreadable due to the superimposed film-within-a-film) are where the message is strongest: several immigrants from Cameroon and other locales speak to the audience about the difficulties of acceptance (let alone brutality) they experience in Spain. Four stars for content, 3 stars for execution. In Spanish with English subtitles.

Rating:
Summary: Critical Issues, Some Fine Actors, But Ultimately a Mishmash
Review: SALVAJES ("Savages") is one of those films that makes you want it to succeed. The story takes place in Spain and involves a group of 'skinheads' who are out to rid their country of unwanted immigrants and in doing so give reference to ethnic cleansing that always raises a heinous specter. Marisa Paredes, always an excellent actress, tries valiantly to make the best of her role as a 50s-something mother of two sons involved in the beating of an African American man. She becomes romantically involved with the policeman assigned to the investigation and who proves to have bizarre, edgy behaviors himself. The filming is by hand held camera which in the beating and interrogation scenes provides only an abstraction of motion that, gratefully, spares us the gore, but at the same time creates a sense of the film falling apart. The actors are a mixed bag: good performances form Imanol Arias, Manuel Moron and Roger Casamjor but only adequate ones from the fairly large supporting cast. The credits (while completely unreadable due to the superimposed film-within-a-film) are where the message is strongest: several immigrants from Cameroon and other locales speak to the audience about the difficulties of acceptance (let alone brutality) they experience in Spain. Four stars for content, 3 stars for execution. In Spanish with English subtitles.