SIN NOMBRE
Written &Directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga
Produced by Amy Kaufman
Released by Focus Features
Spanish with English subtitles
USA. 91 min. Not Rated
With Paulina Gaitan, Edgar Flores, Kristyan Ferrer, Tenoch Huerta Mejia, Diana García, Luis Fernando Peña & Héctor Jiménez 
 

Like No Country for Old Men without the nihilistic postmodern bent, Sin Nombre is quick to establish a dusty Western world where sinister forces refuse to be ignored and any path to comfort is studded with more obstacles than a Mario Kart racetrack by way of Rob Zombie on acid.

The vibrantly shot Central American locations, awash with sunburnt colors and the signs of prevalent poverty that put the U.S.’s economic downturn into a sobering global perspective, immediately ground us in the hard-knock world of two teenagers. Sayra (Paulina Gaitan), disenchanted with the lurking likelihood of a dead-end future, reluctantly decides to leave Honduras and accompany her long-absent father to return to his new family in the States. In Chiapas, Mexico, Casper (Edgar Flores), a brooding charmer, lets his starry love for his beautiful girlfriend get in the way of his obligations to the Mara Salvatrucha, a tattooed gang brotherhood.

After he’s caught lying to his gang leaders, the Mara Salvatrucha deal Casper a devastating blow that sparks in him a thirst for revenge that, when quenched, throws him on top of a cargo train headed for the Border, sharing space with Sayra, her father, and hordes of other aspiring emigrants. Determined to retaliate at any cost, the Mara Salvatrucha taps into its vast network, one that extends from Honduras to Mexico to Los Angeles, to ensure that Casper won’t make it across the border alive.

Along the way, with echoes of old-fashioned Westerns and the nail-biting suspense of a well-oiled thriller, Sayra cultivates a crush on Casper. Eschewing exposition and typicality, the relationship develops—asexually and instinctively, with a code of conduct that seems at once dated and sort of refreshing—at lightning speed.

Flores, in his second performance ever, throws himself into his archetypal leading role and makes it glow with a sexy, wounded energy. Gaitan invests Sayra with a strength, ambivalence, and vulnerability (a challenging trio of qualities to simultaneously embody) that skillfully enhance her damsel-in-distress role.

The actors manage to take what could have been vague sketches of foreigners in peril and elevate them into characters whose motivations are immediate and palpable. Eschewing a heavy-handed political tone, the film packages its social message in the trappings of a breakneck thriller, never sacrificing entertainment value for preachiness.  Patrick Wood
March 20, 2009