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Of love and Other Demons review
:. Director: Hilda Hidalgo
:. Starring: Eliza Triana, Pablo Derqui
:. Running Time: 1:37
:. Year: 2010
:. Country: Colombia, Costa Rica
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When Of Love and Other Demons opens, we see an old woman and a teenage girl in a boat as they advance slowly on a river, somewhere in the jungle. The colors are bright and the soundtrack is quiet, this short and beautiful moment aiming at announcing that you are in the presence of an art film. Based on a novel by Gabriel García Márquez, which is set in colonial era Costa Rica, this film advances with a languid pace, reflecting the state of Sierva María (Eliza Triana), a gorgeous red-haired girl who seems prisoner of her boring — but wealthy — life and, for the first 30mn, Of Love and Other Demons seems to be headed in the right direction, with the promise to confronting several taboos such as religious hypocrisy, underage sex and exorcisms.
The first clue that we are far from movie greatness however comes early, when a rabid-infected dog attacks the girl in the middle of a market. The scene looks clumsy, almost ridiculous, unfortunately announcing what's coming.
There is strong sense of self-importance in the way writer/director Hilda Hidalgo approaches her work, which she most likely feels is necessary in order to honor the writings of Mr. García Márquez. As a result, she injects several metaphorical sequences, which visually look good but quickly turn into a pretentious exhibition. But it's when the romance between the Lolita-type girl and a young priest blossoms that things take a definitive wrong turn and it's not because of its somewhat shocking content or even its boring pace but rather because of its onscreen treatment.
Ms. Hidalgo seems to have spent way too much time watching soaps, offering us a series of cheesy encounters featuring every trick in the — daytime — book: close-ups, bleach- white dreamlike sequences, slow motion and pompous soundtrack. This is particularly embarrassing — and somewhat amusing — as in the first half of this movie she clearly attempts at making a master piece and then corrupts her own aspirations with junk. The fact that Of Love and Other Demons is the debut feature from Ms. Hidalgo who helms here the writer, director and producer roles seems to point that this is mostly a self-indulgent work, a film adaptation that fell in the hands of an inexperienced filmmaker who lacks technical skills, which explains the presence of quite a few awkward scenes, and doesn't have an acquired taste in cinema — thus the contrast between the pretentious and junk tones in her work.
Curiously, this is far from being the first time that a film proves to be both cheesy and pretentious at the same time. There are several examples on the arthouse film circuit, which do not even deserve to be cited here, and in most cases they are either the works of artists-turned-filmmakers or debut features from film students. To be frank, I find these types of films as much offensive as Hollywood's worst junk, except that the pretentious aspirations make it worse. I might not be familiar with Gabriel García Márquez's novel but what is sure is that this picture certainly doesn't honor it.
Fred Thom
 Movie Reviews: Latin American Films
Reviews 2012 - present
Reviews 1998 - 2012
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