Carancho (2010)

Recommended

Argentina/Chile/South Korea/Spain

Feature Film

Director: Pablo Trapero

Writers: Alejandro Fadel, Martín Mauregui, Santiago Mitre, Pablo Trapero

Cinematographer: Julián Apezteguia

Cast: Ricardo Darín, Martina Gusman, Carlos Weber, José Luis Arias, Fabio Ronzano, Loren Acuña, Gabriel Almirón, José Espech

A shady middle-aged solicitor, who arranges traffic accidents for a local gangster, to whom he is in debt, begins to court an attractive young doctor, who moonlights as a paramedic, in order to supplement her income, and has a drug problem; but all does not run smoothly, as his lifestyle soon begins to catch up with him and consequently her, in Trapero’s visceral, hugely compelling drama, which unflinchingly and expertly captures car smashes, medical procedures, and savage beatings with great authenticity, but fails to completely convince with its central relationship – Gusman, though giving a good performance, is far too drop-dead gorgeous to convince opposite the time-worn Darín. Iain.Stott