OUR LADY OF THE ASSASSINS —** — German Jaramillo, Anderson Ballesteros, Juan David Restrepo, Manuel Busquets; in Spanish, with English subtitles; rated R (violence, profanity, gore, vulgarity, brief nudity, brief sex, brief drugs); exclusively at the Tower Theatre.
The Spanish-language thriller "Our Lady of the Assassins" has a lot to say. Whether most audiences can sit through the movie long enough to bear witness to those messages is entirely a different matter.
That's not to say that this somewhat scabrous work is interminable or completely unwatchable. But it is unflinching and amoral to a fault.
For one thing, the film focuses its spotlight on some of the least appealing, least sympathetic characters in recent memory. Even more unsettling is the film's supposed "romantic" subplot — which deals with pederasty and may have the unfortunate effect of offending those who could otherwise stand to hear the film's "think-before-you-shoot" message.
The story is based on Colombian author Fernando Vallejo's controversial, semiautobiographical novel about his return to his homeland. As played by Colombian theatrical actor German Jaramillo, Fernando is world-weary man thinking about ending his life.
Instead, he finds himself in a sexual relationship with Alexis (Anderson Ballesteros), a teenage gang member. Like Fernando, Alexis is alone, having seen his fellow gang members gunned down.
And while the two become inseparable, Fernando is horrified to see Alexis gunning down anyone who even looks at the two of them wrong. In fact, it seems it's only a matter of time before Alexis joins his dead pals, as the attempts on his life become more frequent and more desperate.
Some of the intricacies of Vallejo's novel may work on paper, but here, the "twist" ending seems a bit ludicrous. To his credit, director Barbet Schroeder (1990's "Reversal of Fortune") does his best to keep things tense, but again, when you feel nothing for the characters, it's hard to feel any sense of suspense.
One thing the film does feature is exceptional acting. Jaramillo is very believable, and newcomer Ballesteros gives a brave, unflinching performance in an extremely difficult role. (Less successful is the experiment of shooting on high-definition video, which is supposed to add an air of "authenticity" to the tale but doesn't really add all that much.)
"Our Lady of the Assassins" is rated R for violence (graphic gunplay), occasional use of strong profanity, graphic gore, use of crude sexual slang terms and some sex talk, brief full male nudity, a brief scene simulating gay sex and brief drug content (a shadowy transaction). Running time: 100 minutes.
E-mail: jeff@desnews.com