When luck is not on your side
Daniel Burman’s La suerte en tus manos comes across as overwhelmingly repetitious
When the same theme keeps cropping up — at an relentlessly steady pace — in an author’s work, is it just revisiting the same old subject and staying true to a trademark peculiarity, or is it tantamount to an incapacity to outgrow the same old issues?
In the case of screenwriter-director Daniel Burman, whose Messiah trilogy justifiably
earned him critical accolades and positive public response, the issue in question
boils down to identity crises of sundry kinds (community, paternal, filiation) and a young
man’s understandable need for approval.
In his latest production, the overhyped La suerte en tus manos, premièring today in
Argentina, a young man’s idiosyncrasy is at the core of the story. Once again, Burman
writes a clearly identifiable alter ego as the male lead: Uriel, played by Oscar-winning
Uruguayan singer-songwriter Jorge Drexler (début) with a healthy dose of charm that
translates his musicmaking talent into a seamless blend of candour and unapologetic selfassurance.
Kudos for Burman as casting director and kudos for Drexler, whose presence
illuminates the screen to the point of turning the trite into affable, obliging spontaneity.
Drexler gets under the skin of Uriel, a successful financial entrepreneur in his mid-to-late
30s, unable to settle down to the point of considering a vasectomy and actually
having it performed lest his proclivity to short-lived affairs lead to unwanted paternity. He
has an 11-year-old daughter, but that’s where he has drawn the line. Oh, there’s also 8-
year-old Otto, who may have been the result of a moment’s distraction in Uriel’s
amorous life.
But a vasectomy alone is not the solution if you want a human approach to relationships,
like warning a potential partner or fiancée, “Hey, there’s no procreation here, just boudoir
fun.” Not bad as the starting point for a situation comedy with a dramatic edge to it.
Actually, it’s a good excuse to get the action going. The ensuing situations may be
predictable as they come, but, if well handled, entertainment and food for thought are
served on the same plate.
At the opposite end of La suerte en tus manos is Gloria, played by the great stage and
screen actress Valeria Bertucelli. Like Drexler, Bertucelli’s face and demeanour
alone suffice to fill the screen with a potent mixture of innocence and natural, unaffected
ways. Gloria is an old flame of Uriel’s, who dumped her for someone with less
urgent aspirations. Yet, in Uriel’s view it was Gloria who dumped him for unknown reasons.
Be that as it may, Uriel has abandoned all pretense of a self-charted future — probably in
the volatile music industry — for a more profitable, stable position in the world of finance.
He is a successful broker and an unbeatable poker player, to boot. And yet, he’s clearly
afraid of approaching middle age, that stereotyped moment in life when men opt out
Viagra pills for a red Porsche.
Travelling to the city of Rosario to have the vasectomy performed — keeping it a secret is
a key issue for him — Uriel stays the night at a luxurious hotel which Gloria, as chance
would have it, has also chosen for a reunion with her mother (Norma Aleandro). From this
point on — and this is not meant as a scathing remark — everything is predictable, as is
normally the case with good comedy. The old scheme boy-meets-girl (chances on old
flame), boy-loses-girl (refuses to take another chance), boy-gets-girl-back (decides
to take a dive) is certainly unavoidable and what audiences rightly expect from this kind of
product.
In La suerte en tus manos, however, the string of comedy situations interspersed with
moments of quiet or funny reflection are sloppily handled, even if, presumably, the
screenplay was chockfull of promises of a perfectly choreographed and executed feelgood
story. Good will permitting — massive amounts of it — you may try to dig deeper into
the theme of La suerte en tus manos. You may argue it goes well beyond the restricted
subject of identity, human fear of emotional bonding and commitment, the works. It may
also be argued that chance — the way we mere mortals know it and the way better
equipped Rabbis understand it through thorough study of the Torah — plays heavily on the
storyline of La suerte en tus manos.
However, revising Mr. Burman’s filmography, it may well be the case that, under a different
format, he’s treading on safe, familiar territory. This may be comfortable for himself as
writer and director, but a dud for audiences who’ve seen his previous movies. Which is
very likely the case with filmgoers who run to watch “the new Burman.” Will they find
something new, or at least something fresh by way of story and genre treatment? Doubtful.
When it comes to box office, though, La suerte en tus manos is likely to do rather well,
provided the right demographics turn to this formulaic dramedy.
