Drama/Mex (2006)

"Drama/Mex" tells of three everyday people in Acapulco whose lives intersect over the course of a two-day period. The characters include an attractive young woman named Fernanda (Diana Garcia), who's having trouble deciding whether to stay with her current beau (Juan Pablo Castaneda) or to return to her thieving cad of an ex-boyfriend (Emilio Valdes); a middle-aged business man named Jaime (Fernando Becerril), who's contemplating suicide as a way out of his unhappiness (there's a hint that he might be having an incestuous relationship with either his daughter or stepdaughter); and a half naïve/half streetwise girl named Tigrillo (Miriana Moro), who's in the process of learning how to rip off rich, male tourists for fun and profit. The last two characters meet when Tigrillo slips into Jaime's beachside motel room to steal his wallet right at the moment that he has a loaded gun to his head. Together, these two people with relatively little in common beyond their happening to be at the same place at the same time, manage to forge an unlikely relationship that defies easy labeling."Drama/Mex" is a homespun, slice-of-life drama that isn't obsessed with making big dramatic gestures or revealing grand universal truths about human nature. Instead, it simply introduces us to its characters and lets their stories play out naturally, with very little manipulation or fanfare. Though the narrative is clearly contrived to some extent, the film still manages to capture the random nature of life as we live it. The characters don't necessarily "learn" anything from their experiences - but they do emerge from those experiences, to some degree or another, "changed" people, willing to look at their lives from a decidedly different vantage.Superb performances (especially by Becerril and Moro) and direction (by Gerardo Naranjo, who also wrote the screenplay), and a refusal to tie everything up into a neat little bow at the end add to the movie's overall quality and appeal.

I have to admit I watched this film by mistake. I was checking previews on pay per view, and it seemed interesting but not enough for the $5.99 they charge. But then I pressed the wrong button and I found myself, regretfully, watching it. I hoped until the end it would go somewhere with the characters but it didn't. It reminded me a lot of "Amores perros" another film whose popularity I still cannot understand . Interconnected stories!!??? First of all, what stories? Yeah, they all happen in the same town and this town has a beach, so people end up there...oh, I forgot to mention that the stories happen in a hot day so the actors in these interconnected stories are all sweating, so there is some connection. I agree with other reviews, the camera work was interesting at the beginning but as the story became a bore, it made the film even more difficult to watch. The music (Beethoven on guitar) was so cliché that by the end I was keeping myself amused by guessing when would it start playing.

Fairly early on in this film I had this dreaded thought: the central characters lack any real heart or integrity. Then I sat through it hoping the plot would develop these "rats" into people I could possibly care about. The five main characters largely remained rodents right to the bitter end. So the characterizations lacked depth (primarily not the actors fault). This isn't a gritty story about hardship. It almost feels random, without real voice, what happens just happens. The title indicates this is a (lightweight) drama. It just didn't lift off the runway. Technically the camera work was a bit rough, and the subtitles were poor. Great or even just good festival/independent films can percolate in your head for days afterwards. This film left me as soon as I left the film.

This film sets back Mexican film making 10 years. Te story is awful along with the cinematography and acting. I sat thru an hour of hoping that this movie would take me someplace but all that happened was my friend who unbeknown to me was also having a terrible time sitting thru this waste of time turned to me in Spanish and said '' please can we leave'' I nearly kissed him we turned to our other 7 friends all who went to support Mexican film-making and we told them we were leaving this sinking ship. two more agreed that nothing was happening except dizzying cinematography and just a sad sad terrible flick. 4 of us left and I quickly went to the box office and requested a refund I was told no but when 2 other people who left when we did came over to demand a refund they obliged. My friends who stayed later text me and I quote''oh no and the worst thing is nothing happened it went no where'' After seeing a great Mexican film KM31 I expected way more than what this film offered, save your money. even if I did not like you I still would not recommend this.