Blancanieves (***1/4)

Did seeing The Artist make you wish for another black-and-white homage to silent film? Look no further than this Spanish effort. Where The Artist tweaks silent-film conventions, this one plays it just about straight. Though still playful, if not quite comedic, at times, it’s mostly an old-fashioned melodrama, beginning with twin tragedies, continuing with a wicked stepmother, and winding up with (mostly) good-natured dwarves. As the title‘s translation suggests, it’s infused with fairy-tale elements…and bullfighting.

The key character, the long-suffering Carmen, is played by the appealing Sofía Oria as a girl and by Macarena García as a young woman. (Maribel Verdú, of Y tu mamá también and Pan’s Labyrinth, has a prominent role. This kind of slightly unreal story, set in the 1920s, is the perfect kind of story for a silent film. It’s didn’t grab me as immediately as The Artist (though in time), but it was almost as lovely to look at, with scenes set in a lush mansion, enormous arenas, and the open landscape. The score by Alfonso de Vilallonga is tremendously varied and truly carries the film along, and the ending, while not to every taste, is slightly mysterious, mostly surprising, and entirely fitting.

IMDb link

viewed at Ritz 5 7:35 pm 5/8/13 and reviewed 5/8/13

The Matador (**3/4)

Pierce Brosnan is a past-his-prime hitman who strikes up an unlikely friendship with mild-mannered businessman Greg Kinnear. Likeable characters and an intriguing conclusion make up for a contrived premise.

When Hollywood screenwriters want to make a criminal likeable, as often as not they make the character a hitman (see Prizzi’s Honor, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, etc.) So it is with Pierce Brosnan in The Matador, which pairs him up with mild-mannered businessman Greg Kinnear. The first part, set in Mexico City, especially is reminiscent of Quentin Tarantino films, with its mixture of gaudy graphics, quirky/retro-cool soundtrack, and offbeat personalities. The violence, however, is much more toned down, and eventually the film settles down into a more or less likeable buddy comedy. Brosnan looks like a retired James Bond (which he is) with a constant two-day stubble. There’s something contrived about the scenario that I think kept me from rating this a little higher. But Brosnan and Kinnear make a nice pair, and the resolution of the story is intriguing.

IMDb link

circulated via email 1/5/06; posted online and slightly revised 9/19/13

The original version of this review had The Grifters in place of Prizzi’s Honor. I had the plots mixed up.