The Fish Child (2009)

"The Fish Child" or "El Nino Pez" is Argentinean director Lucia Puenzo follow up to the critical hit "XXY". Puenzo once again casts Ines Efron to star in this story of a family in the rich upper class suburbs of Buenos Aries."The Fish Child" is more ambitious and sprawling in its story telling which also contributes too many of its faults. While "XXY" was a small character drama focused on the struggle of one persons search for identity "The Fish Child" reaches for a more broad almost soap opera like style. The story is told in a fractured non linear style making a first viewing somewhat of a challenge.It is a modern day love story between two young women Lala (Efron), the daughter of a judge and, Ailin the family maid. They plan to run away together to Paraguay and live in a house on the shores of Lake Ypoa. The problem is they have no money. Lala's father is about to retire and write a scathing memoir about the rampant corruption within the police force. But before he can do any of this he is murdered but by who? Lala and Ailin have their motives as do others.The story is told from Lala's point of view and mainly focuses on Ailin. She is accused and arrested for the murder and send to prison. The story flashes back and forth in time to give us a background on the characters, but when it comes to the third act the plot is just too bloated and over stuffed. We find out a bit more about Ailin's past and an anticlimactic resolution to who killed Lala's father. Needless to say they escape to Paraguay and live happily ever after or something like that. Obviously not the greatest movie but the acting of the two girls is pretty decent and will appeal to those who scour the foreign films section looking for something different.

This movie gives an steady view into the existing relationships of the protagonist's family.The movie keeps the context, yet change frames to show differences of human nature. The outcomes are sometimes drastic, sometime pleasant.The urban lifestyle of Argentina and rural landscape of Paraguay have been used to show the contrasts. The protagonist plays a simple girl with honest emotions. Her lover on the other hand is a maze. She has a range of emotional and physical connections to different people, who form a part of her existence. The former, with a good fortune and privileged life, the latter with a rustic background and tragic life. She keeps spinning misery around herself under different circumstances,that ultimately affect her lover so much that she is ready to run away to a different country. The movie picks up pace and keep changing locations to keep audience interested.It would be good to watch this on a Tuesday evening as a mid week thought breaker.

The sapphic love between two young women is at the center of this intriguing story from Argentina. Lala, the daughter of a prominent judge in Buenos Aires is having an intense love affair with Guayi, the Paraguayan maid working for the family. Lala wants them to go Guayi's country to live in the house they will build by a lake. For that purpose she goes to a small town across the border. Unknown to Lala, the judge, is also having his way with Guayi, probably against the maid's wishes.Nothing prepared Lala for what she finds once she gets North of the border. When she arrives at Guayi's house, she finds the fence decorated with little baby dolls and offerings left behind by people that went there as though looking for a place of worship. Guayi's father appears to let Lala in the house. He is a former soap star with a shady past, responsible for the tragedy his daughter experienced, and the reason she has stayed away from him. When Lala tries to leave, the man shows her a newspaper article showing her father was killed. Guayi is held responsible for the crime. Lala goes back to try to get her out of prison, something that proves to be almost impossible. With the help of a friend of Guayi this man stages a rescue. Finally the two women are together at last.Directed by Lucia Puenzo, and based on her own novel, "The Fish Child", the film mixes some magic realism, favored by a lot of South American writers, with a sort of road film. The narrative is obscure, although the core of the story is the love between two young women from different backgrounds. The story does not make clear what really happened to Lala's father, something the director does not fully explore. The same thing can be said about the relationship between Lala and a father she knows took advantage of Guayi and her absent mother. There are a lot of themes the director wants to tackle and perhaps it is why the film goes in different directions.The best thing in the film is the quality acting Ms. Puenzo got from the cast she put together. Ines Efron is quickly becoming one of the best actresses in Argentina, as she has already proved. Ms. Efron has an expressive face that adapts itself to conveying the emotions going on in Lala's head. Equally good is Mariela Vitale, a new face in films.Rodrigo Pulpeiro's dark cinematography contributes to create the atmosphere in which the action is set. This film, although shown at the Tribeca Film Festival, has not been released commercially, as far as we know in the United States. One feels Ms. Puenzo will be around for quite some time because she is a voice that deserves our attention.

Everything is going wrong in this upper class family of Buenos Aires except the irregular love of the daughter for her Paraguayan maid. Lucia Puenzo's second opus (an adaptation from her own book) is even more audacious than her debut XXY.Surfing through the classical genres (melodrama, thriller, sexploitation, voyage of self-discovering) she find her way to tell this poignant story of love and desire. It's also a denounce about the abuses of political power and everyday xenophobia. Superb performances from both leading ladies and the general cast, gloriously photographed and rightly directed. One of the great titles of 2009.