a SIFF 2009 review
Coppola’s Tetro a Surrealistic Treasure
Bennie’s (Alden Ehrenreich) cruise ship has broken down. Not that he ever didn’t expect to get off in Buenos Aires, it’s just that the engine malfunction has given him a reason to go and search out his long-lost literary brother Tetro (Vincent Gallo) and find out what’s been going on in his life.
Alden Ehrenreich, Vincent Gallo and Maribel Verdú in American Zoetrope's Tetro
The two have been estranged for longer than either would care to admit, the elder sibling cutting his family off completely after he learned his famous composer father’s (Klaus Maria Brandauer) secret and realized disappearing to South America was better than facing the truth. But his beautiful and loving girlfriend Miranda (Maribel Verdú) is curious and Bennie excites her, and no matter what complications may arise she’s certain this week-long reconciliation between the two of them can only be for the well and good.
Iconic filmmaker Frances Ford Coppola’s (The Godfather, Apocalypse Now) latest film Tetro is certainly an improvement upon his last idiosyncratic independent production Youth Without Youth. Where that film felt indulgent and pointless, this one has an emotional undercurrent that hits like a hammer to the heart, the central relationship one full of highs and lows so uncompromising and bountiful trying to assess them all and give them meaning takes more than a single viewing.
With obvious echoes to Vittorio De Sica, François Truffaut and Federico Fellini, Coppola has composed a sublime interpersonal familial masterwork that can sometimes feel like a slap to the cheek. Tetro and Bennie’s relationship bobs and weaves into corners and crevices I never quite anticipated, their ultimate destination one of beautiful yet unnerving simplicity. There is a profound believability to it all that shook me up, the destination so fantastical the journey getting there almost didn’t even matter.
On a technical side the film is luminously shot by Mihai Malaimare Jr. (he also photographed Coppola’s Youth Without Youth), his sublime use of black and white as magnetic and as poetical as anything I’ve seen this year. While the director mixes in a few color moments here and there (most of them going into doll-like detail that dances on the edge of the fantastical), it is the main narrative that retains the most weight, the cinematographer’s magnificent ability to bring it all to such pristine realization a testament to both his skill and the Oscar-winning director’s storytelling abilities.
It helps that the actors are more than up to the challenge. Both Ehrenreich and Gallo have a brotherly chemistry that is immediately palpable. I believed that these two grew up knowing one another, that they shared a connection that transcended failure and heartbreak. I had no problem accepting that the younger would feel compelled to seek out (and hopefully help) the elder, the years between them nothing more than a minor obstacle needing to be overcome in order to fix things forevermore.
There are some over-indulgent moments. Coppola almost can’t help but slather on the melodrama, especially at the end, while a few surrealistic sequences scream of extravagance the likes of which other filmmakers – even egotists like Michael Bay or McG – would embarrassingly scoff at. The film, for all its beauty, can feel a bit like a vanity project, and especially towards the end there were sequences where I almost couldn’t help but wonder what in the world Coppola was thinking.
Overall, however, these moments did not bother me. In point of fact, I simply didn’t care about them, the central storyline revolving around Tetro, Bennie and Miranda so strong and my emotional investment so high the protagonist could have started speaking in Pig Latin and I still probably would have been swept away by it all. There is an interior urgency that kept me galvanized, and by the time it was over the tears I was crying were so honestly earned I could have cared less if a moment here or there wasn't quite up to par.
Is the film a return to form for Coppola? No, not really, but who am I to say one way or another? The reality is that at this point in his career I am not about to call out the director for taking chances and for trying to do something personal and different. This movie, its hit and miss structure aside, takes chances and goes places most feature films run screaming from, and even if it isn’t perfect it still packs an emotional wallop so strong over a week later and the bruising next to my heart still hasn’t begun to fade. I liked this picture, sometimes liked it a lot, Tetro a fascinating human excercise worthy of praise.
Film Rating: êêê1/2 (out of 4)
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