Alfredo (Abel Tripaldi) and Jorge (Martín Rodríguez) are journalists from a small left-wing weekly in Montevideo, Uruguay. Whereas Jorge is a newcomer to the arena, Alfredo is a former political militant and has plenty of experience at his job. It’s elections time and it’s very likely that, for the first time ever, the left-wing party Frente Amplio will reach the presidency. One night and out of the blue, a mysterious man contacts the journalists. He claims he’s an ex-member of the Armed Forces and that he has undisclosed information about human rights violations during the 1973-1985 military dictatorship, including details about a clandestine operation called Operación Zanahoria.
As the storyline of Uruguayan Enrique Buchichio unfolds, you realize that it had a limited potential for an averagely decent movie. It’s the kind of film that first opens up a wide range of dramatic possibilities, but then it falls short to meet most expectations. Not necessarily, or not only, because it becomes over-plotted way too soon, but mostly because it fails to achieve neither suspense nor surprise. Which is undoubtedly the worst thing that can happen to a thriller of any kind.
No wonder why: it’s incredibly talky from beginning to end, and not in a good way, as each single detail of the plot is explained in informative dialogue, and not through more cinematic means. Add to that poor performances from the entire cast, a static mise-en-scene, and a lousy editing that has no rhythm whatsoever. On the plus side, the photography is fine and functional to the story for it sometimes accomplishes a sombre atmosphere. And that’s about it.
Production notes
Zanahoria (Uruguay-Argentina/2014) Written and directed by Enrique Buchichio. With César Troncoso, Martín Rodríguez, Abel Tripaldi, Néstor Guzzini. Cinematography: Pablo Parra. Editing: Guillermo Casanova. Running time: 100 minutes.
