[Film] 'Battle In Heaven' tackles poverty, power

from Canoe Jam! Movies

By LIZ BRAUN - Toronto Sun

PLOT: Neo-realist outing about corruption in Mexico City attempts to tie up the whole moral and political stew through the tale of one man's pilgrimage toward death. With subtitles.

Battle In Heaven begins with controversial footage involving a beautiful young woman, an unattractive older man and oral sex.

Everything you might assume about power, class and money and these two people would be wrong.

Battle In Heaven concerns the strange redemptive journey taken by Marcos, a poor, mild-mannered driver whose life has taken an unpleasant turn.

This is Mexico City, where Marcos and his wife have kidnapped a baby. And the baby has died.

All of this unfolds in two sentences of conversation. Marcos' bizarre relationship with Ana, his wealthy employer's daughter, is another piece of the puzzle. Ana works sometimes as a prostitute, just for kicks, and Marcos is the only one who knows about her secret life. Their intimacy -- emotional and physical -- is strange and vaguely menacing.

Battle In Heaven contrasts poverty and corruption with lingering shots of nature and beautiful countryside. And takes its time doing so. There is a stillness to the film that is initially fascinating, but it wears thin quickly.

When Marcos blurts the secret of the kidnapping to Ana, she tells him to give himself up to police.

Marcos has other ideas, however, and the story moves from tragedy to redemption as he joins a pilgrimage of the faithful to the shrine of Our Lady Of Guadalupe.

An emphasis on realism gives Battle In Heaven a documentary feel. (And the crowd shots of Mexico City could make you despair for the human race.)

The film is cast with people who are not actors, and the sex scenes are real, in accordance with Carlos Reygadas' take on such matters. The filmmaker seems to have an interest in what can be symbolized by sexual encounters involving wildly disparate partners. The result isn't sexy, but it certainly reveals how the characters feel about each other.

And themselves.

BOTTOM LINE: What we have here is initially challenging but eventually not very satisfying. The film is in Spanish with English subtitles.