A 30-something slick city man wearing an impeccable black suit with a starched white shirt and a briefcase gets stranded in a God-forsaken town in the desert of San Juan when his car runs out of gas. He seeks help among the townspeople, a group of mysterious old men who hide some dark secrets (by the way, so does the slick city man). But there’s no gas available — maybe later on, or tomorrow. There’s also a young, good looking woman and her daughter, who wait for the return of the family man who vanished into thin air. As the city man anxiously waits for his ticket out of this dying place, some strange natural (or supernatural?) phenomena start taking place. It doesn’t take him long to realize that once he entered this place, he’d never get to leave. He’s now trapped and in danger.
That would be a succinct synopsis of El manto de hiel, the new film by Argentine filmmaker Gustavo Corrado, arguably one of the worst local releases so far this year. Not so much because the way its plot unfolds is contrived and far-fetched — whimsical love affair included — but mainly because, in formal terms, almost everything has gone awry: the dialogue, which lacks as much verisimilitude as the characters do, the lousy editing that fails to provide the film with the right tempo, or the almost nonexistent dramatic crescendo that turns the movie-watching experience into an exercise in overcoming tedium.
But the worst part are the wooden performances from the entire cast, with William Prociuk heading the list. Lines are uttered as though they were being recited, with no pulse or soul. Forget all about a broad emotional range as well. Had this been just a problem with a couple of performances, then it might have turned somewhat bearable. As it is, it’s impossible to get involved in the film. You just see actors, so to speak, trying to act, and it’s not a pretty sight.
If there’s an asset in this entire mess, that’s the photography. From a technical point of view, it’s well accomplished. Yes, it’s formulaic, but well-done. Which is not nearly enough to redeem the film from its many other outstanding flaws.
