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La Soga (The Rope) (unrated)
The film's edge is terminally dulled by an avalanche of cliches and schmaltz.
Manny Perez and Denise Quinone
8/18/2010
As a 10-year-old eager to prove to his butcher father that he's not too ``sensitive'' for the family business, Luisito (Manny Perez) sticks a knife into the heart of a pig he had named Wilbur and taken on as a pet. The scene is graphic and harrowing -- the animal's death throes and spasms suggest either a real pig or a masterpiece of special effects -- and it scars the kid's psyche for life.
Twenty years later, Luisito works as a vegetarian butcher (the slaughter turned him off eating meat forever) and devotes his spare time to carrying out the dirty work of Gen. Colon (Juan Fernandez), the corrupt head of the Dominican Republic's secret police.
The early scenes of La Soga (The Rope), stylishly directed by Josh Crook and exceedingly well shot by cinematographer Zeus Morand, promise a Latin American riff on The Shield, with badge-wielding officers behaving in blatantly illegal ways, including executing suspects in full view of TV news cameras. The film initially appears to be an uncompromising look at the gray moral zone a government must navigate when a country is overrun by crime and poverty.
Instead, we start getting flashbacks to Luisito's childhood (he witnessed the murder of his father by a drug dealer and yearns for revenge) and the reappearance of a childhood sweetheart (Denise Quiñones) who awakens his conscience. There also are several unfortunate, sometimes risible appearances by adorable little pigs -- heavy-handed symbols of the hero's lost innocence. Perez, who also wrote the semi-autobiographical screenplay, does what he can with the part of angst-ridden Luisito. But as the character grows soft and sentimental, so does La Soga, and the film's edge is terminally dulled by an avalanche of cliches and schmaltz.
Cast: Manny Perez, Denise Quiñones, Juan Fernandez, Paul Calderon, Hemky Madera, Alfonso Rodriguez.
Director: Josh Crook.
Screenwriter: Manny Perez.
Producers: Manny Perez, Josh Crook, Patrick Pope.
A 757 Releasing release. Running time: 100 minutes. In English and Spanish with English subtitles. Vulgar language, violence, gore, nudity, sexual situations, graphic depiction of animal slaughter.
| Average rating based on 2 reviews. |
