Valentin
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Movie Reviews of Valentin
Movie Review: Life through the eyes of a child
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a great drama about life seen through the eyes of a little kid, in the 60's, in Argentina.
It is unfortunate if you are unable to watch it in Spanish as a lot of the 'porteno' slang gets lost in the translation. Nevertheless, one of those few great movies!
Movie Review: Beautiful, touching, fun film
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a beautiful Argentine film. The protagonist is a creative and amusing child telling of his experiences growing up in Buenos Aires in the 60's. It is playful and touching. Carmen Maura plays his grandmother. I highly recommend it!Movie Review: Thank you for delivering the product in time and in very good condition.
Summary: 5 Stars
A profound film, entirely in Spanish about the journey of a courageous, sensitive young boy. Valentin deals with his own reality, and through valor and creativity, builds a better life for himself and others.Movie Review: Emotional Life of a 9-Year-Old Boy.
Summary: 4 Stars
"Valentin" is director Alejandro Agresti's semi-autobiographical tribute to the emotional strength of children. Valentin (Rodrigo Noya) is a 9-year-old boy living with his grandmother (Carmen Maura) in Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1969. His grandmother loves him, but misses her recently deceased husband desperately and complains constantly of her remaining family. Valentin dreams of being an astronaut and longs for his mother, whom he has not been allowed to see since his parents' divorce. When Valentin's ill-tempered father (Alejandro Agresti) introduces his son to Leticia (Julieta Cardinali), the latest in a long string of girlfriends, Valentin takes to her immediately, and feels that his life is looking brighter.
If "Valentin" were a little older, this might be called a coming-of-age story. Instead, it is a story of this boy's ability to adapt, to find hope in the events around him, and to advance his own cause in his own way. Valentin is an opinionated child, sometimes to the point of being bratty, but his forthrightness and sensitivity endear him to adults nonetheless. In his attempts to navigate his family situation, Valentin discovers that things are not as he thought they were. He doesn't fall into self-pity, as adults are prone to. He accepts the world the way he now sees it, changes his opinion, and sets about adjusting his agenda. His strength is his ability to adapt.
"Valentin" is an evenly paced character drama, narrated by a frank, perceptive 9-year-old. Rodrigo Noya is perfection as Valentin. His thoughts and feelings are written across his face. It's a completely honest performance. He is nuanced as well as bright and earnest. The cast deserves a lot of credit, because this is the sort of drama where, if any emotion is exaggerated, the story would become horribly sentimental. Carmen Maura and Julieta Cardinali hit just the right note, and writer/director Alejandro Agresti appears as Valentin's father. Spanish with a choice of English subtitles or English captions for the hearing impaired.
The DVD: There is a 12-minute interview, in English, with writer/director Alejandro Agresti in which he discusses the autobiographical nature of the film, its themes, and casting. The interview is interesting, and I recommend it if you like the film. But the photography is horrible. The color balance is so far off during the interview that the picture is practically orange. It wouldn't have taken much effort to fix that. There is also a theatrical trailer.
Movie Review: Being a child again ;)
Summary: 4 Stars
This is the story of a very particular 8-year-old, who lives in Argentina in the late 1960`s. The spectator will laugh and cry, as Valentín (played by Rodrigo Noya) shows him the world, from his own point of view, and with some interesting and candid remarks.
Which is his world?. Well, first his home, then his neighbourhood. This little boy lives with his grandmother (Carmen Maura) since his parents divorced, and is visited by his father (played by the director, Alejandro Agresti) only from time to time. Valentín would like to see his father more, and thinks his mother abandoned him because she just didn't love him enough. Despite that, he isn't a gloomy person, but rather a good boy who tries to make the best of what he has.
Valentín has many dreams, for example being an astronaut. He is so eager to be one in the future that he even practices how to hold his breath when he is having a bath, and how to walk with weights on his feet. However, his most cherished dream is to have a family again, and he will do all he can to "create" one. He will have an opportunity of doing exactly that when he meets the last of his father`s girlfriends, Leticia (Julieta Cardinali). I don't want to tell you more about the plot. Suffice it to say that simple things, seens from the eyes of Valentín, aren't so simple any more. They acquire a charm that even the more jaded will enjoy...
Regarding the language, take into account that the original language is Spanish, but that this movie contains quite a bit of Argentinian slang that isn't overly well translated in the subtitles. That doesn't get in the way of understanding what is happening in the movie, but it may interfere a little when it comes to nuances. So if you have an Argentinian friend ask him the "difficult" words, or search them in the Internet afterwards.
On the whole, I really liked this film even though I think the ending lacked something, I don't know exactly what. Maybe I just wanted more closure, or I needed to know more about what happened afterwards to the characters. All the same, I can highly recommend this movie to you. The acting was great, and the movie different. "Valentin" will make you remember again what being a child was like, even if that was a long time ago :)
Belen Alcat