VALENTIN
Directed & Written by: Alejandro Agresti.
Produced by: Laurens Geels.
Director of Photography: Jose Luis Cajaraville.
Edited by: Alejandro Bordersohn.
Music by: Luis Salinas & Paul M. van Bruggen.
Released by: Miramax.
Country of Origin: Argentina/Netherlands. 86 min. Rated: PG-13.
With: Carmen Maura, Julieta Cardinali & Rodrigo Noya.

For those who remember Carmen Maura’s electric turn in Pedro Almodovar’s Law of Desire, seeing her as a stern and sickly grandmother here may come as a shock. She’s an Argentinean Amanda Wingfield, living in the past, complaining “Why didn’t I die earlier.” It’s no wonder that her sole charge, nine-year-old Valentin (Noya), pines for a mother. According to his grandmother, his actual mother - an “ungrateful Jewess” - abandoned him and his father for a lover when he was just a baby. With thick eyeglasses, a mop of hair on his head, and dressed in suits, Valentin looks like a diminutive old man. He daydreams that his pretty blond teacher will marry his father. There’s a ray of hope though. The boy's distant father (played by director Agresti) wants him to meet the woman he intends to marry. Leticia’s everything Valentin could wish for in a mother - she’s young, blond and beautiful. But Valentin’s slip of the tongue inadvertently bursts his and his father’s bubble.

As the vulnerable and pensive Leticia, Julieta Cardinali allows us to read her character's thoughts. Whenever she and the still larger-than-life Maura are on screen, the film becomes more than a by-the-numbers coming-of-age tale. Leticia’s go-go boots and references to Che Guevara firmly set this semi-autobiographical film in the earth-toned late ‘60s, but the established nostalgic and restraint tone takes an unfortunate turn in the final third. In an operatic confrontation with Leticia, Valentin screams, with arms outstretched, “I thought that we would take care of each other!” The over-emotional tone continues in a later scene, where a stranger reveals a pivotal secret to Valentin. Fortunately, the precocious matchmaker in Valentin is kept to a minimum. But with its all-in-all-life-is-a-crap-shoot message, this simple and predictable story will underwhelm even the most gullible. Kent Turner
May 6, 2004