Guerschuny’s new work, written by Wainraich, isn’t a step in the right direction
POINTS: 4
Argentine filmmaker Hernán Guerschuny’s first film El crítico (2013) , the story of a film critic who sees the world as though it was a movie and so he can’t stop criticizing it, was somewhat of a nice surprise which despite its flaws and unevenness did have a fair number of assets. It was a lightweight dramatic comedy with appealing performances from Dolores Fonzi and Rafael Spregelburd and it did show some promise. It was, to some extent, effective.
Unfortunately, Guerschuny’s second film Una noche de amor, written by comedian Sebastián Wainraich with the collaboration of Guerschuny, and starring Wainraich and Carla Peterson, is not what you’d call a step in the right direction.
This time, the filmmaker goes mainstream big time and, in doing so, he leaves behind a less calculated, fresh approach his first film had. It’s not that the plot itself is a total mess — although it’s far from original — but mainly because its sense of humour à la Woody Allen shows way too much and it doesn’t even work half of the time. That and the fact that the ending is rather predictable turns it into a feature not to be remembered.
Leonel (Wainraich) and Paola (Peterson) have been married for 12 years, they have two children, they enjoy their jobs — he’s a script writer and she’s a psychologist — and they seem to have good times together. It’s all neat and tidy. But what about the passion and desire they once had and is now not to be found?
That’s the question they ask themselves, after a couple they’ve been friends with for years announces they’ve broken up. Such unpredicted news stirs uncomfortable emotions, and over the course of one night out, both Leonel and Paola will have to face a crisis of their own.
So you have a dramatic comedy that borrows heavily from Woody Allen, not only in the situations the characters are involved in but mainly in the dialogue filled with snappy one-liners that don’t ring authentic. In fact, they seem to come out of a screenwriting handbook. Moreover, many times, a gag’s punch line comes to mind before the characters utter it and that isn’t a good sign if we’re talking about a dramatic comedy that aims at being surprising.
The performances are definitely not out of this world. But they aren’t awful either. If Peterson and Wainraich don’t have as much chemistry between them as the story requires, it’s not their fault. Once again, the problem is the script which has them say and do things that have been said and done in many other films before. Actors are just actors, they can’t perform miracles.
And when comedy turns into drama, things get more discouraging. Regarding the problems examined in the film — the routine in a long marriage, the lack of strong desire, and the burden of having children when wanting to be alone — the screenwriter’s gaze is shallow and so it can’t unveil anything new.
Yet, perhaps, Una noche de amor may work in some basic level, but the point is that it fails in so many other ones.
production notes
Una noche de amor (Argentina). Directed by Hernán Guerschuny. Written by Sebastián Wainraich. Starring Sebastián Wainraich and Carla Peterson. Cinematography: Marcelo Lavintman. Music by Juan Blas Caballero. Running time 90 minutes.
@pablsuarez
