2010, Movies

Carancho (2010, Pablo Trapero)

Carancho is a crime drama / thriller centered around the problem of car accidents and hit-and-runs and insurance fraud in Argentina.  Though there are aspects of the film that are appealing to me, there are also a couple major problems.

The film is shot in a really interesting way and especially in the opening scenes, the close-ups are kind of disorienting. There’s an immediacy from the way its shot, and it feels real, as much as overall story feels perhaps a tad too contrived for me.

And I can’t fault the acting, as I think just about everyone in the film is doing a pretty convincing job.

But there are a couple of things that rubbed me the wrong way. The first of which is not a spoiler but the second of which could be considered a bit of a spoiler.

I find the romance between the 50-year-old man and the 30-year-old woman to be kind of icky and inexplicable. I don’t really get the attraction for the woman, beyond that they are both flawed. Maybe she believes nobody else could love her? But the whole thing feels contrived and, at the very least, I wish they could be closer in age. But it gets ickier later, as the doctor seems to lose her agency – yes, she’s high part of the time but still – even though this is a doctor she apparently isn’t capable of coping with stress.

The other issue I have with the film is the moral at the end of the film, which feels more than a little heavy handed. Yes, we got that all of this is not okay. But I’m not sure the last scene is necessary, or needs to be handled as it is, as we got it already.

But at least it was thought-provoking.

6/10

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