Imagining Argentina (2003)The story, and the facts behind the story, of innocent people being kidnapped, tortured, and killed in Argentina is so disturbing and emotionally draining it's hard to see this movie objectively. I wish it was a better movie, both in its construction (the filming and editing) and in the storytelling decisions (too much emphasis on empty searching, and too much torture, even after we get the point).Cruelty needs no sympathy, and this movie gives it none. But it gives it attention, offering only a solution in perseverance and romantic love. There are lots of evocative scenes of dancing and music, of wide open countryside, and of warmly lit interiors. It paints a picture of a beautiful country with a beautiful culture, just to show how a small tilt in a great place can turn to horrors.The final statistics of all the people "disappeared" under the Argentine dictatorship is an indictment of cruel dictators. The movie serves to remind us, and to paint the horrors, and it goes half way. I wish it had been a poetic, or raw, or inventive success as well.

History classes had taught me some of the darkest moments in modern history. And I always seemed to be gasping away when learning about it. Don't even get me started talking about it.We had been living in a civilised society and we should be thankful for it. History had shown us how sometimes life can be just...not really the way we want to live at times.The movie, which is based on Lawerence Thorton's work of the same name, tells about the military dictatorship that Argentina went through during 1976-1983 through the eyes of a theatre director husband Carlos (Antonio Banderas) and his journalist wife Cecilia (Emma Thompson).During those darkest moments, many were captured and Cecilia were among the targets as well where unfortunately, she was captured too. Given she is a journalist herself and she wanted to report about the suffering. At the same time, Carlos seemed to have this psychic power about knowing the future and where his wife might be. He knew he had to find her, no matter what happens.Even to the point that the theatre that he owned had to be closed down.The price of human suffering through military dictatorship is clear for all to see. You get people who are living in fear. And those who dare to defy the dictatorship.Maybe speaking from someone like me who was once a History student, I felt even more horrified and aghast when watching this movie. It's just, scary.

We read the original text by Lawrence Thornton when it was published in this country and liked it for what it dared to present. Not having seen the film, as we don't think it was ever released commercially in this country, or maybe it was just seen in a few markets, we recently caught up with it via the DVD version. Coming, as it did, to the screen adapted by an English playwright, Christopher Hampton, we were expecting much more than what we see on the screen. The novel is worth reading for anyone interested in the tragedy that was perpetuated in Argentina, in which the people in power decided to eliminate, gradually, all those that opposed the military regime, or as in the case of the story at hand, innocent people that had brains to realize the atrocities that were being committed by the brutal people in power.The main problem with the film is the tone that Mr. Hampton decided to give his adaptation. The metaphysical powers of Carlos Rueda occupy center This film could have improved with an all Spanish cast instead of the mixture of acting styles and accents in the finished product. Casting a bearded Antonio Banderas, as Carlos, was perhaps, the wrong choice. Mr. Banderas, whose career in America has been in mostly action movies, is not effective as the man who sees into the crimes that are being committed, including those against his wife, Cecilia, and his daughter, Teresa, but is helpless to do anything to help them.A heavily accented Emma Thompson is seen as Cecilia, who sees her world shattered when they take her away and is tortured by those savages that kept her. Ruben Blades has nothing to do in the film, as his presence doesn't add anything to the story. Ditto for Maria Canals, who plays Esme, the loyal friend. Leticia Dolera appears as Carlos and Cecilia's daughter Teresa, who like her mother, is taken away as a lesson for the father, who has dared to ask about their whereabouts and has protested publicly.The only thing the film serves is to remind us about those totalitarian governments that have brought to power dictators like the ones that wrecked havoc in Argentina against people they thought were in their way.

Banderas, once again finds himself in a movie that denounces a dictatorship and the crimes against humanity committed by a military junta. Like his character in the movie Of Love and Shadow (where he plays a young Chilean Francisco Leal), here he plays a young Argentinian Carlos Rueda, who finds himself involved in a tragedy bigger than life. And yet he finds that imagination and remembrance brings hope to those who suffer. A beautiful and moving film, with great interpretations (bravo to Emma who acts with a heavy Spanish accent) that enters your soul and makes you feel the pain of an atrocious regime. I loved it and I suggest it to all young people to see how the madness of few can lead a country to incredible pain and sufferance