Eldorado starts out as a quirky, low key comedy along the lines of Jim Jarmusch (Night on Earth, Down by Law). Perhaps slow and uneventful by some people's tastes, but pretty humorous if you let the absurdity soak in. The story is about a couple of unlikely travel buddies who embark on a cross-Belgian roadtrip, alternately showcasing the gorgeous countryside and the bizarre characters they encounter.But as you can guess by my title, for me and I believe for most American audiences, the film was upstaged by an unsettling sideplot about a dog being brutally killed. After watching the movie, I immediately googled the director trying to figure out why he would include this terrible juxtaposition in an otherwise playful film. You're not going to like what I learned.According to an interview, this director's hallmark is to use a dog in his films. In this case he decided to use a dead dog. It was not intended as a major plot point but merely to express the contradictions in humans. In the scene, one character says and does something absolutely vile, but (as the director says in the interview) we are supposed to excuse him because he later shows that he is just human because he had a dog once.Um. No. Perhaps blame it on a trans-Atlantic difference in how we love our dogs, but most civilized Americans will not, under any circumstances, excuse or condone the idea of a dog being tied up, thrown over a bridge, and left to die whimpering.That's what my title refers to. Immediately I was so sickened by that scene and the characters' blasé reactions, that I lost all respect and empathy for the lot of them. Ultimately, after watching an 85 minute film, I was left wondering why I should care about anyone in the story. Of course this was not the director's intent; I suppose we were supposed to take the jarring scene more in stride. If you're a dog lover, or even a casual fan of animals, I guarantee you'll be very put off by the unnecessary brutality of that scene. I sure hope they didn't use a real dog (though it looked like they did).

A man who imports used American cars to Belgium catches a young burglar who he begrudgingly befriends...we find out later that he had recently lost his younger brother to drugs and feels some rapport.This movie is hard to rate...if it hadn't gone on so long it would have gotten a 10---but the last 30 minutes are kind of out of gas.Let me say one thing about the dog scene...it took a lot of daring for the director to do this. However, animal cruelty no matter how it is twisted in unfunny.The essence of this kind of movie is bizarreness turned into comedy. If you find the idea of importing used American cars amusing you will understand this movie. I love these things and this one was done well. Except as I mentioned the dog scene.The movie used digital techniques for the sky and other scenery but it was beautiful anyway. Computers mean some really beautiful landscapes.In the end? Very good especially the nudist scene and others. Mentally sublimate if you can the dog part because the rest of it is really spot on.RECOMMEND

The picture was a Belgian winner at Cannes as Best European Film Director's Fortnight, and I picked it up packaged as part of an 'Own the Film Movement Series'. Though there are some terrific foreign films, this one did not leave me impressed. It takes on the guise of a road film, after Yvan (Bouli Lanners) agrees to take Didier (Fabrice Adde) back to his parents' home, this after the recovering addict is found burglarizing Yvan's house. There are some unconventional characters that the pair come across along the way, but in it's attempt to be quirky, these chance encounters seem to be more contrived than accidental. The one scene that's played for poignancy involves Didier's mother, longing for some semblance of an emotional attachment to her son, but thwarted by an off screen husband who has no use for his shiftless son. Yvan conveys a rare insight into familial relationships that he imparts to his fellow traveler, while insisting they tend to an overgrown garden of weeds. This appears to be what's at the heart of the story, as Yvan despairs over the loss of his own younger brother, and now has no one left to call family. For the viewer, one is left to make what one will with the way the story ends, as there is no resolution in the traditional sense. If seen in the company of others, there will no doubt be an endless supply of possible explanations for how the story ends, or continues as it were.

After some disappointing films during a french film festival in my city this film was a complete change. Just a few characters are needed to transport couple of message to the audience. There are a lot of funny though short dialogs. The landscape they re riding through is really lovely and the scenes are not exaggeratively long. The soundtrack just fits perfect especially since Devendra Banhart provides the song for the most sad scene of the film, Yvan helps Ellie to dig the garden of Ellies mom, who hasn't seen him for ages. You really get moved to tears in this very moment. Well, although Yvan is sure that Ellie is a drug addict, he helps him. At the end it becomes true but there is no explicit message the film sends to the viewer, you can judge on your own, no moral oppression thus.