La niña en la piedra (2006) User Reviews

Different & Good

[karas006 · 7/10 · 15 September 2007]

I wasn't expecting much from this movie. I picked it randomly from a stack of DVDs. Perhaps the fact that i was not expecting much out of it made me like it more than if i had expected a good film. It moves a bit slow at 1st but once you pass the 1st 15 minutes you are hooked. Or at least i was. I'm not sure where the movie was film but it is a great location, perhaps even perfect. Unfortunately like the other person commented the sound was average at the most. That really drops points, the sounds of the cats are extremely annoying. I also think that they didn't do more to portray the sounds of the beautiful environment of the locations where the movie was film. The acting was great considering it was a bunch of young actors. I did not like the ending at all. It leaves you with many questions. To wrap it up, worth watching despite many drawbacks. Sofia Espinozas performance was the best acting in the movie so go watch the movie now!

Well directed and acted drama

[rasecz · 8/10 · 30 September 2007]

The place is a small town in Mexico. I seem to remember a reference to the state of Moroles in the credits. The principal subjects are teenagers in school. The ingredients of the drama are the growing interest of boys and girls in each other, a few unsavory bullies, and a large stone that may be an archaeological find. The stone does have a role to play.

The story develops slowly at first. It's time for us to get to know the multiple characters. Eventually the pace accelerates to a dramatic crescendo.

The young actors are well cast and have good performances. The atmosphere of a small Mexican town is nicely captured. The actors do a nice job of portraying the simplicity of the town's folks, farmers and small landowners.

missed the first few minutes

[mdcpht · 31 March 2011]

I do believe that the whole movie focuses only on the inability to take "no" for an answer. Gabino was obviously obsessed with Maty, and Maty was obsessed with her gym teacher. she could have been nicer to him while rejecting him but then this movie would not need be made. The only important role the artifact or "stone" plays is that it helped her when she got left for dead in the swamp, hence the name of the movie, she had to step on the stone under the swamp to keep her head above water. the moral of this story is that it is easier to get pressured by your peers when your heart is broken. If his friends hadn't ran into him after Maty tore his card, he wouldn't have thought of or participated in what they did to her. This would be a good movie to watch with your teenagers if it showed consequences of what they did, as it ended with her looking out the window at her sister making out with her gym teacher, rather than the boys who tried to kill her getting apprehended. As for the cat screams i believe they are also symbolic, as the whole thing started because of a kitten he was supposed to give her and then ends up hanging to torture her. It was hard not to watch this movie as the acting was excellent and the plot is something that can really happen in a small town like that.

Excellent beginning, but perplexing ending

[arnis12 · 17 April 2007]

I'm not sure what to think of this film. The first 80 minutes or so of the film were perfect and haunting, kind of like a Mexican take on GEORGE WASHINGTON. The film shows a sleepy Mexican village that seems to be decaying and a group of boys that decide to take revenge on a popular school girl. I have to say that the film lost me with the KITTEN'S SCREAM towards the end. Those who see the film will know what I'm talking about, and I got to hear it in full blown surround sound which was not pleasant. It is here that the film takes a turn towards the dark side and it seems that the filmmaker seems to be exploring the themes of the Evil that underlies this small town, similar to what David Lynch did in Blue Velvet. However I was a bit perplexed. Is there something more going on here. The film begins with a mythic image of a father and son discovering an ancient statue of a corn God stuck in the mud and then throwing it into a deep swamp. There seems to be issues of race and class as well. The girl who is victimized is light skinned and the boy who is mistreated and taken advantage of, clearly has Indian features. I was hoping someone would be able to clarify some of the difficult questions this film raises. I also felt that the director let the sound designer get out of control. The first half of the film was perfect and naturalistic, but the sound design became more abstract and disturbing, something which I felt worked counter to the subtle work the cinematographer and the wonderful work the actors were achieving.