Alonso Ruizpalacios’ fictionalized account of Mexico’s ‘Heist of the Century,’ when Mayan National Treasures were looted from the State Anthropology Museum in the mid-1980s, might have been improved if the real story it’s based on hadn’t been ‘improved.’ In this telling, a couple of slacker pals, thirty-something veterinary students Gael García Bernal & Leonardo Ortizgris, ditch their family’s Christmas Eve celebrations to take advantage of scheduled renovations at the museum to pull off a rush job. The early scenes work best, with interpersonal relationships brought out, including some health crises that bear on events before and after a robbery that comes off as largely improvised. Bernal, very much the alpha male of these perennial underachievers, pushing for action. Ruizpalacios does tends to overwork his technique, whiplashing the camera thru messy family dynamics, but it works extremely well for the robbery where the museum’s shocking lack of security & protection give easy access to priceless antiquities. It’s only when they have the goods that they realize they haven’t a plan (or a clue) on what to do next. Who’d even think to trade in such internationally recognizable treasures? And the film’s structural switch to Road Movie brings out the worst not only in the two pals, but in the film’s dramatic focus. (Not quite sure here, but this also seems to be where the film largely departs from the facts.) A tricky ending (sacrifice, renunciation, admission-of-guilt) gets us back on track, resonating dramatically largely thru Bernal’s ability to let us read emotion physically without having to twist himself into knots. No need to ‘indicate’ when you’ve got such transparency in the set of your face.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: How’d the producers ever manage to snag Sir Simon Russell Beale to play a bit as the fabulously wealthy art collector who sees right thru these amateurs? Quite the catch!
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