After a grand performance in the Oscar winning The Secrets in Their Eyes, Ricardo Darín impresses once again in Carancho, which is also being submitted by Argentina for the next Academy Awards.
Can Darín go two for two?
Beginning with some stunning statistics regarding the number of road deaths in Buenos Aires (which number in the thousands every year), we meet Sosa (Darín) and Luján (Martina Gusman). Sosa is essentially an injury lawyer 4 U specialising in road accidents and Luján is a paramedic, again specialising in saving victims of road accidents. The pair meet and begin a tenuous friendship which eventually blossoms into romance, in spite of the conflict that arises from the shady nature of Sosa’s business and their age difference.
The corruption in Sosa’s compensation company eventually forces him to turn against his sinister employers, but not before he has helped/taken advantage of (depending on your point of view, which is difficult to ascertain in the hazy moral murk of the film) one client in a brutal and truly shocking manner. The film is at times stunningly violent but never less than enthralling. The two leads give great performances, Darín displaying his thoroughly natural charm and Gusman heartbreakingly honest.
Pablo Trapero’s direction is strong, the near perpetual darkness and glowing lights of Buenos Aires reminding of the Urban beauty of Michael Mann’s Heat. Carancho is a remarkably good film, from its slow burn start to its all too inevitable final frames. A true festival highlight.
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