Every year at least during the last decade, Argentinian cinema comes up with a single film that is superlative in many ways. Just back to 2014 we had Relatos Salvajes (Wild tales, Foreign film Academy Award nominee), The Clan (2015, this one to a lesser extent), El ciudadano ilustre (The distinguished citizen, 2016), and this year La cordillera, by Santiago Mitre. Mitre, still really young, is on his path to claim his spot beside the greatest contemporary Argentinian filmmakers such as Juan Jose Campanella and Damian Szifron.
This was Mitre's first super-production and he succeeded in coming up with something absolutely ambitious. The fact of the film's scale, it's remarkable cast (best national actors by far- Ricardo Darin, Erica Rivas, Gerardo Romano- and great foreign ones- Christian Slater, Elena Anaya) made it highly expected by the big commercial audience, but Mitre has surprised everyone with something so big in it's universal themes (power, greed, corruption) but yet subtle, full of metaphors
and without a closure to the story, which is what the average cinema goer expects. Hence the mixed reviews, popular reaction and the widely spread notion that the film stays half way or that's slow and boring. It can be a really uncomfortable film for some people, it makes one think and in general people go to the cinema just for entertainment.
The pace of the film it's perfect. Neither too slow nor to fast, it allows one to keep thinking about what's there or what's not. I guess it's more enjoyable if someone has interest and knowledge in politics but as I said above what really matters is the universality of the themes that are dealt with throughout the movie.
The only weakness I can find is the inclusion of President Blanco's daughter played by Dolores Fonzi. Even though then I realised this was merely with the purpose of exploring more in depth Blanco's personality and morality, I hardly find Dolores Fonzi credible (I can only recall 2013 "El critico" as an exception). In the long run and after figuring out the reason of her inclusion it didn't really matter. Everyone who's more thoughtful than the average can have a different interpretation of the events or possible outcomes.
It blew my mind.
The Summit
2017 [SPANISH]
Action / Drama / Mystery / Thriller
Plot summary
At a summit for Latin American presidents in Chile where the region's geopolitical strategies and alliances are in discussion, Argentine president Hernán Blanco endures political and family drama that will force him to face his own demons.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
May 15, 2021 at 09:03 AM
Director
Top cast
Tech specs
720p.BLU 1080p.BLUMovie Reviews
A glorious accomplishment
Filmmakers Who Forget to Be Entertaining
This movie was about as much fun as watching the news on a slow news day. They threw in a non sequitur of a family problem just because they obviously had no idea how to make a film out of what they had and that's what you get with La Cordillera. On top of all of the boredom they made it run almost two hours! Why? They had almost nothing to say and then they say it for almost two hours?
Ricardo Darín can't rescue this mess. Even the trailer is boring which is almost always a sign that the film is bad.
Interesting plot...
"The Summit" is a Mystery - Drama movie in which we watch the president of Argentina attending a summit for Latin American presidents in Chile where the main topic is petroleum, alliances and strategies. The president of Argentina will have to face his past as his political and family drama come together.
I enjoyed this movie but I have to admit that I expected more since I am a fan of Ricardo Darín's movies. I expected more suspense in the end and to show us a little bit more of the future of the character. The direction which was made by Santiago Mitre was good and he presented very well his main characters along with the plot and the history behind their stories. The interpretation of Ricardo Darín who played as Hernán Blanco was very good for one more time. Some other interpretations that have to be mentioned were Dolores Fonzi's who played as Marina Blanco and Erica Rivas' who played as Luisa Cordero. To sum up, I have to say that "The Summit" is an interesting movie that had the potential to be great but it was not and it's just a nice movie to spend your time with.