Highly-anticipated film Baires is an ill-fated thriller with no thrills and glaring flaws
POINTS: 3
Mateo (Benjamín Vicuña) and Trini (Sabrina Garciarena) are in love, pretty much like new couples usually are. They enjoy intimate moments of tenderness and long conversations, hot sex and cuddling at night. Though they are Argentine, they met and live in Spain and are now on vacation back in Buenos Aires. But on an ordinary night at a club, they are kidnapped and taken to a house where they meet Eric Leblanc (Carlos Belloso), a drug trafficker and El Mono (Rodrigo Guirao Díaz), one of his thugs. But the kidnappers don’t have robbery or extortion in mind for the young couple. Their plan is far more sinister.
Eric wants Mateo to smuggle cocaine into Spain as an airline passenger. All he has to do is follow some instructions to ensure the success of a carefully-coordinated plan. But the human factor, be it out of fear or instinct of survival, will turn things upside down and Mateo won’t follow any order whatsoever. And that’s when the real consequences kick in.
Written and directed by Marcelo Páez Cubells, Baires intends to be a suspense thriller, with some foot chases, tense situations, a couple of shootouts and a policeman (Germán Palacios) that in due time will help Mateo. It’s a genre film that wants to be dynamic and nerve-wracking and make viewers care for the fate of the protagonists. At the very end, it even tries its luck at an unexpected twist. And it fails in every regard.
When instead of truly fleshed-out characters you have action figures lacking in personality, it’s impossible to care for any of them. Add to that the fact that all the performances range from mediocre to poor. Even Carlos Belloso, who’s usually a resourceful actor, fills in the shoes of a devalued stereotype.
As for Vicuña, he’s not that bad actually but his character is barely credible, which is basically the same problem Palacios faces with his role. When it comes to Rodrigo Guirao Díaz, he just can’t act. But we already knew that. And there are of couple of very forgettable scenes with Juana Viale in another grossly underwritten role. Garciarena gets little screen time, even considering she shows up at the very farfetched ending.
The movie’s string of flaws doesn’t stop here though: there’s a glaring lack of tension and suspense from beginning to end, implausible dialogue and even more implausible circumstances that the characters go through, poorly staged action scenes, lousy shootouts and no real drama anywhere.
And don’t get me started on cinematography, editing, sound design, or art direction. Because if the script itself does not work at all, then not even the best mise-en-scene can compensate for it. And here, to top it all off, the mise-en-scene is far from remarkable.
Production notes
Baires (Argentina, 2015). Written and directed by Marcelo Páez-Cubells. With Benjamín Vicuña, Germán Palacios, Sabrina Garciarena, Carlos Belloso, Rodrigo Guirao Díaz, Juana Viale. Cinematography: Rodrigo Pulpeiro, Pablo Desanzo. Editing: César Custodio. Running time: 85 minutes.
