Our Lady of The Assassins will have you either loving it or hating it. It polarizes because it never compels as a movie itself, but is laid out before each person, needing him or her to internalize the film. The movie speaks of living in a Columbian drug town and the irony as people get shot everyday by moral-less teens set against the beautiful city and sky. But the main character, an old gay writer, is never engaging or as articulate and thoughtful as one would expect from the "best known grammarian" from Columbia. In fact, as grammar is rigidly structured, so are the writer's banal comments about 'time being what you want it to be' and 'life only being lived to die.' The musings have been heard before, but with greater clarity and depth. There is no epiphany to be associated with any of his sayings. However, he meets a young former gang member, marked for death, named Alexis and they fall in love. The film is so detached that their love is the closest element to emotion, and still one cannot understand why this boy would sleep with a man who incessantly whines constantly. The shocking life in Medellin is the most compelling aspect of the movie and the movie still has points, it's just that they are not nearly poignant enough. They are shown by the director, but never cohesively placed into an argument. I really wished I could have liked this movie.

Our Lady Of Assassins showed at the Brisbane International Film Festival. It left me initially distraught and other members of the audience obviously felt the same. After a bit of thought, I realised that it was indeed a powerful and beautifully created way of presenting the desperate nature of life in Medellin. The main character, who was born and raised in the town, remembers how potentially violent it was even 40 years earlier, yet seems to be shocked by how much it has decayed. It is strange that he is also quite complicit in inciting violence, while seeming to be just looking for love.

The film forces the audience to question the day to day value of life and just how much violence we can allow ourselves to tolerate. But in Medellin the solution is certainly not in the hands of just one person.

A great trio of films showing the broad story of the cocaine phenomena would be "Our Lady Of Assassins", Ted Demme's "Blow" and "Traffic".

An old, gay Colombian writer Fernando (German Jaramillo) falls in love with a young, gay punk Alexis (Anderson Bullesteros) and they walk around Colombia exploring and talking and talking and talking...Later on he does it with another punk Wilmar (Juan David Restrepo). The film is interesting with some very interesting dialogue and some truly beautiful scenery (sometimes it seems more like a travelogue on Colombia). The acting seems to me very natural and unforced (although Restrepo wasn't that good) and the two young men playing Alexis and Wilmar are just incredibly beautiful. But...what's the point? Fernando's questioning about love, life and death gets tiresome and the Alexis' and Wilmars' casual killings are disturbing. Also the movie is VERY depressing--I left the theatre in a miserable mood. So, I'm giving it a 7 because it was interesting--but what was the point? I'm assuming it's trying to show gay life in Colombia--but I'm not sure.