Kærlighed på film (Just Another Love Story) (2007)

Meet Jonas (Anders W. Berthelsen)—married father of two, crime scene photographer, suburbanite, owner of a beater car that works one minute and stalls the next. His wife Mette (Charlotte Fich) rallies for a new car. Jonas knows they cannot afford it. Following a car accident, Jonas takes a mistaken identity moment and runs with it, discovering a passionate new life for which he’s pined.

Jonas goes to visit the stranger Julia (Rebecka Hemse) at the hospital. She is near death following the wreck. When Jonas is mistaken for her boyfriend, Sebastian, he is unable to tell the truth. As her family begs him not to give up on her, they rally around her and become acquainted with “Sebastian,” the boyfriend they have only heard about. Julia comes to. She is blind and has amnesia. She gets to know Jonas’s version of Sebastian and falls in love, not remembering right away that she may have killed the real Sebastian (Nikolaj Lie Kaas).

Backstory is told via flashbacks. There are odd secondary characters. Jonas’s friends, Frank (Dejan Cukic) and Poul (Karsten Jansfort) are idiots. Poul laughs all the time, mostly at inappropriate moments. Frank has the same expression regardless of what is happening. Then, there’s Doctor Dichmann (Flemming Enevold), over the top in all his reactions. He deserves his own film but seems badly cast here.

(Spoiler Alert: Read at Your Own Risk!)

The real Sebastian returns and the movie comes to life. Hemse’s Julia isn’t compelling enough to carry the story. By the end, her pained expressions and convulsions are tiresome. The supermarket scene where Jonas breaks up with his wife feels genuinely pained. Overall, the movie is slow. It has its noir elements, but the proportions don’t fit gracefully together.

Writer/Director: Ole Bornedal

Country: Denmark

Genre: Thriller

Run time: 100

Scale: 2.5

Matando Cabos (Killing Cabos) (2004)

This uneven caper film borrows heavily from Quentin Tarantino with some Seinfeldian moments but doesn’t quite pull it off. Feels and plays like an early-in-movie-making-career effort.

Jaque’s (Tony Dalton) boss Oscar Cabos (Pedro Armendáriz Jr.) is also his girlfriend’s father. He recently beat up Jaque after finding him in bed with his daughter, Paulina (Ana Claudia Talancón). Today, Jaque has been called to Cabos’s office. He finds himself locked in as Cabos comes at him with a nine iron ready to pummel him, when an unexpected twist saves him…for the moment.

(Spoiler Alert: Read at Your Own Risk!)

Jaque enlists the help of his bosom buddy Mudo (Kristoff—the Spanish speaking Ethan Hawke) to help him deal with Cabos’s body. Mudo calls Ruben, aka “Mascarita” (the mask) (Joaquín Cosio), a has-been wrestler with a short fuse when called by his wrestling name. Ruben is accompanied by his side-kick, Tony, aka “El Canibal” (the cannibal) (Silverio Palacios). Tony is the small guy (who might be a cannibal) to Ruben’s giant.

Jaque/Mudo/Ruben/Tony are trying to get rid of Cabos’s body before he wakes up in the trunk of Jaque’s car but they continue being sidetracked. On the same side of town, Botcha (Raúl Méndez) and Nico (Gustavo Sánchez Parra) are taking care of an old debt with the help of Lula (Rocío Verdejo), Paulina’s best friend. Botcha/Nico/Lula end up with the wrong body. When forced to take desperate measures, their path crosses with Jaque/Mudo/Ruben/Tony and the situations become more complicated for everyone. For good measure, you also get a cross-eyed bus driver with emotional scars, an obnoxious parrot who alerts the building when the neighbors are home and a unwitting maid dealing with harassing phone calls.

Some gags, dark humor, extreme beatings. Matando Cabos goes too far in trying to shock and be funny. The acting is bland with a few of them barely showing up. There’s too little known about most of the characters—especially Mudo and Jaque. Connections between characters are left hanging in an unsatisfying manner. For example, how are Mudo and Mascarita acquainted? The subtitles refer to Oscar Cabos as Jaque’s father-in-law despite the fact Jaque and Paulina are dating/not married (this may be culturally common, but it causes logistical confusion, as you will see if you watch). How did Botcha manage to find Nico? What is the deal w/ Paulina and Lula?

All that said, the dialogue contains quick-wit, the sets are colorful and festive and I didn’t once think about turning off Matando Cabos.

Director: Alejandro Lozano

Country: Mexico

Genre: Dark comedy

Run time:  93 minutes

Scale: 3