The translation means "The Whore and the Whale" Not a great title if I do say so myself, thing is though, that is basically what the story is about.
Vera is a writer, she hasn't written anything in many years, when her old lover and editor (Jordi) brings her love letters and photos taken by a man who died during the Spanish Civil War a curiosity and obsession begins to grow in her. She tells Jordi about a lump that she found in her breast that she is getting checked out. She travels to Argentina to find out what happened to the photographer (Emilio) and the woman from the love letters (Lola) We start jumping back and forth in time, from 2003 to 1933 to see her finding out the story, and then seeing it actually play out. She underestimates the tumor and is right away in the hospital in surgery. They end up having to take her entire left breast.
Emilio is in love with Lola, he gets a job out in the middle on nowhere on the coast of Argentina, he takes it and brings Lola along, when he gets there he discovers that he is taking nude photos for the cover of sheet music for the tangos that a blind composer (Suarez) writes. Suarez becomes interested in Lola right away. A jealousy begins to build in Emilio.
While in the hospital Vera finds out that the woman (Matilde) who is in the bed next to her was a prostitute who worked at the whore house that Suarez owned and that Emilio and Lola stayed in while they were there taking photos. I'm going to leave it at that when it comes to describing the story, I don't want to give away how Lola dies, or what kind of betrayals they do to one another, it would be unfair.
Even though it clocked in at two hours, and at times I felt slightly bored, and wanted them to push the narrative along, the story is such an epic that it should have been longer, I was thinking 4 hours. That of course would have pushed away a large chunk of the audience and that's never good, but it was this tragic love story and needed the time to really let it soak in and marinate. I was very happy with it and surprised at times. The effects though really needed work at some parts, you could tell they didn't have the budget they needed to have for a period piece, as well as needing to make a whale look real when it's merely CGI.
The acting was beautifully done as well as the actresses were gorgeous. From the girl who played Mathilde as a young woman, to Vera or Lola, I was always happy to see them on screen. Ive made this same statement before, I believe it was when I wrote about "House of Sand" but Ill say it again for this, the actresses are women, not girls. If this was an American film I'm sure they would have went with a younger group of actresses or at least women who have a certain young look to them. There is a certain maturity and hardness about these characters that needed even if a young actress plays them to have a look about them of knowing the world.
There were a few really cool scenes where Vera is writing about an argument that Emilio and Lola are having, and they take her table that shes writing at and stick it in the 1933 time in between them as they argue, very cool. They let the cinematography sort of just play and meander as it should, its very free like that. Besides the story of Emilio and Lola its amazing and sad to watch Vera try and come to terms with what she and other women who go through this consider no longer being a full woman, or no longer beautiful.
The story is not all that original, I didn't really care though because what makes it so enjoyable to watch was that the writing and dialogue was to a T. They didn't really over write anything, things that bordered on cheesy weren't.
This would be the 2nd movie in as many days that deals directly with cancer, I need to get away from this trend, movies like this never end happy. Films that take a mirror and hold it up and instead of seeing your own reflection you see your own destruction should only be watched once in a while, they aren't really party movies.
It was a very enjoyable movie, not for everyone, but it was certainly a venture away from the norm and will be telling people to check it out for a while, even though it might not be the best movie I've seen recently it certainly earned a mention. 8/10 stars.
Director: Luis Puenzo
Starring: Leonado Sbaraglia, Aitana Sanchez-Gijon, Pep Munne, Merce Llorens, Miguel Angel Sola, Belen Blanco, Lydia Lamaison
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