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The Debutantes review
:. Director: Andrés Waissbluth
:. Starring: Antonella Ríos, Néstor Cantillana
:. Running Time: 1:55
:. Year: 2003
:. Country: Chile
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When one thinks of Santiago, Chile, the sleazy underworld of crime and prostitution doesn't normally spring to mind. In Los Debutantes, while director Andrés Waissbluth has successfully created a seedy nightlife, his vision of Chilean yakuza isn't entirely convincing and his John Woo finale is too over the top to take seriously.
The description on the Latino Film Festival web site touted Los Debutantes as a drama about a woman named Silvia who finds work in the porn industry while raising her younger brother, who dreams of losing his virginity and going to college. Well, this wasn't quite the movie I saw.
Instead, a young man named Silvio (Nestor Cantillana) has moved to Santiago from the south with his younger brother Victor (Juan Pablo Miranda) in search of work following their mother's death. Silvio takes Victor to a strip club/brothel for his birthday, where Victor is immediately taken by the charms (and breasts and hips) of a stripper named Gracia (Antonella Ríos). But Gracia belongs to the owner, a smarmy old man named Don Pascual, and we all know what happens in the movies when you get involved with the abusive strip club owner's woman…..
Silvio begins working for Don Pascual as his right hand man, and gets a taste of the good life. With his boss out of town for a week, he treats himself to staying in his house, driving his car, sleeping with Gracia, and feeling important in general. But friction between Silvio and Victor increases tenfold as Victor has fallen in love with Gracia. He finds her as a ticket taker at a porn theatre and Gracia allows him to pursue her as she is charmed by his innocence. Obviously, she finds some comfort in being able to manipulate two brothers in an effort to control her own fate.
Her character is the most interesting. When she's not stripping in front of the camera, we learn that her mother worked for Don Pascual and that since the age of 15 she has been his mistress. She's strung on coke to make sleeping with Don Pascual bearable. There's also a secret child she has tucked away in an orphanage but we never learn about the true circumstances or how she would have been able to give birth, given her job. Some of Andrés Waissbluth's criticisms of Chilean society are interesting but they're never explored in depth. He seems to insinuate that the poor are merely being pimped by the upper class but never fully expounds on his theories. Instead, we are treated to Gracia's whipped cream dance on more than one occasion.
As the movie falls into B movie plot twists, the tone completely changes. The stand off in the end is as predictable as it is silly. Unfortunately, the premise that Waissbluth constructed, along with the palpable tension between two brothers, is squandered amidst guns pointed in all directions.
Anji Milanovic
 Movie Reviews: from 1998 to 2011
Movie Reviews since 2012
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