Tres pájaros (2001) User Reviews

Detour

[jotix100 · 7/10 · 19 May 2004]

Recently this film was shown on cable. Argentine films don't have the market in this country, but some, like this movie, should have a wider audience. This film, which I suspect is an Indie, deserves better. First of all, director Carlos Jaureguialzo, knows a thing or two about what he wanted to show us. Obviously, he does wonders with very little money.

This story evokes some mainstream films where everything that could go wrong, and more, happens to poor Gustavo, an up and coming junior executive, of a mining firm based in Buenos Aires. When his boss decides to test his ability to deal with problems in one mine in the north of the country, he sends the young man to solve the problems, also, he gives him one hundred thousand dollars to pay off the ones making trouble.

The problem is that nothing prepares Gustavo for what he will encounter along the way to the mine. The first clue is at the airport: the person who is to meet him, never shows up; a group of kids almost steal his money, and worst of all, he rents a car from an agency that doesn't even have a map for him. When he picks up a young soldier, he realizes that he is dealing with people with such narrow mentalities, that everything he knows from the corporate environment, doesn't apply in the present situation. To make things worse, his cellular phone, his link to civilization, goes out of range.

By taking a detour that appears to give him the shortest route to the mine, Gustavo discovers, too late, he has descended into hell as he arrives at the abandoned country general store/motel, with the only gas pump in the vicinity.

At the shabby motel, he encounters more trouble in the form of a patronizing owner who has no idea when the gas supply will arrive to fill the empty pump. Temptation, in the form of the mysterious Mariel, lurks in the distance. The menu at the inn never changes. In fact, Gustavo might as well die in that remote place and no one will ever know about it. It's just the epitome of isolation with no hope in sight! The only problem it doesn't ring true is the confrontation between Mariel's man and the Bolivian smugglers. Those scenes could have used a more realistic approach, but it's only a minor detail.

The acting is excellent. Daniel Kuznieta is a new face, as far as I'm concerned. His take on Gustavo, the young man who falls through a hole without any chance of ever getting out, is right on target. Isabel Achaval infuses Mariel with raw sex that is hard to forget. Manuel Vicente and the rest of the cast are very effective.

Good acting, problematic storyline

[AlaveWall · 6/10 · 16 July 2008]

Gustavo (Daniel Kuznicka) is a young, go-getter businessman from Buenos Aires. He listens to a motivational recording in his car that compares the successful businessman to a jungle animal who knows what he wants and goes for it. Unfortunately for Gustavo, his jungle behavior, impulsive and self-serving, manages to consistently conflict with what it actually takes to be successful. He is late to meetings, shows impatience and rudeness when dealing with people who could help him, and throws things away in sudden bursts of anger when frustrated. He takes up with Mariela (Isabel Achaval), an adorable but dangerous and callow prostitute, for no other reason than his jungle-instinct commands him. Unfortunately for me, this was the most interesting conflict of the film, and the film's outcome was not believable in the context of Gustavo's character. There was no evolution of his character that would suggest a change, although perhaps the message is that his jungle-morality does ultimately lead to being left in the jungle to fend for himself. Somehow, I don't think that's what the director was aiming for though. Mariela's character, cute, sexy and pathetic as she was, did not convey the sort of depth that would change a man, or even make him forgive her for ruining his life, unless his vision of what makes life worth living had changed. The film does not develop the characters well enough to support that interpretation though.

Did not like this movie

[mzladymoon-1 · 31 January 2007]

Because the main character Gustavo is very unlikeable.

The way he comes on to Mariel after following her was really a turn-off to me as a woman. Women don't like to be approached that way. He was like, I'm horny and I can't even be bothered with any kind of conversation/foreplay. The director might have thought in his delusional mind that he was re-creating a Last Tango in Paris moment. NOT! (Besides, this actor ain't hardly Marlon Brando.) His character was a self-absorbed, incompetent jerk who couldn't get out of a rain shower. Who would trust him with money? And the shoot-out was filmed in the dark. Yes, I know, it's a rural environment so it was totally 'realistic' since there is no lighting out there. But if you can't SEE stuff in a movie, then what's the point? No one pays to sit there saying to themselves, 'oh this is so real, I can't see a thing, but it's real.' Please. All they had to do was shoot it as dawn was beginning to approach, not in the dead of night. That would have resolved the problem.

Stupid movie!