While browsing a web forum, I stumbled upon the existence of this film. I decided to watch it. I had never seen any movie from Puerto Rico, so I started with this one.
Titled 200 Letters, released in 2013, and directed by Bruno Irizarry.
It is classified as a romantic comedy.
Overall, it is a passable film.
In short, a young man working in New York accidentally ends up with a charm belonging to a young woman, knowing only that she lives in Puerto Rico. He and his friend travel there to find her and return the charm. Upon arrival, they discover that the name of the girl they are looking for (María Sánchez) is extremely common and there are many of them. Someone suggests that they could send a general letter to all of them hoping to get a reply from the woman they are seeking, but they receive several responses and begin tracking her down (a road movie). The story is intertwined with two other women who accompany them on their search.
It is an idea that could have been fully exploited, but it left me with the feeling that it had potential for more than what was done. Perhaps it is not the kind of humor I like; a bit slow for my taste. Furthermore, many scenes felt like they were forcing humor that did not come out naturally, nor did it seem to. On many occasions, they fall into clichés.
However, there are some aspects of this film worth rescuing. One is the landscape. It certainly doesn't go unnoticed, from the city to the countryside, at least to appreciate the context in which they moved. That background provided an extra touch, a sense of purpose for the characters.
In terms of comedy, without a doubt, the best performance goes to a Mexican actor who precisely played the role of a Mexican, an actor named Jaime Camil (Juan in the movie). Perhaps the funniest moments of the film were delivered by him, although it often felt like he wasn't being matched by the others.
Among the female actresses, the one who does the best job—playing a somewhat rambling pacifist for whom everything is fine and positive—is actress Mónica Steuer, who plays Rebeca in the film. I just can't get used to this somewhat slow humor; I felt like something more was missing.
Another aspect of the film worth salvaging is the vocabulary, the Spanish language, featuring on one hand Mexican-Spanish and on the other Puerto Rican-Spanish, as well as English. Because, at least in the version I had the opportunity to watch, the beginning of the film is spoken in English and partially subtitled. For anyone who doesn't understand it, it might feel a bit tedious, but only for a stretch.
At times, I don't think the relationship between New York and Puerto Rico was coincidental, considering the historical ties between the US and Puerto Rico, and the same goes for the language—that mix of English and Spanish in the film. If we look closer at the movie, we will find passages that only Puerto Ricans can fully understand, certain phrases that allude to their own idiosyncrasies.
The final aspect to consider deals with how the film was made: an intercalation between reality and fiction. One of the actors, the main character around whom the entire story revolves, is Lin-Manuel Miranda (Raúl in the movie), who plays a young man who draws comic strips as a hobby and later sells them. However, he reaches a point of obsession where he confuses reality with his comic book characters, so we see a movie where the reality of the present merges with animated drawings, always from the perspective of this character, who suffers from this kind of delusion the whole time. This is nothing more than a faithful reflection of many disturbed individuals who walk the city day by day and cannot discern one from the other. Every now and then, we see in the media when one of these subjects, somewhere in the world, gives in to their madness, snaps, and commits a tragedy. Although they are the minority, there are many people who live in a different reality. At times, it feels like the odyssey of a little crazy man obsessed with a girl after a verbal exchange of no more than five minutes, crossing certain boundaries in search of his "love"—such as traveling from one country to another—fueled by a mental fabulation. This individual had created his comic book character named Iro, which means 'man' in the Taíno language, an indigenous language of the Arawak linguistic family spoken in the Antilles around the time of the Spanish Conquest and currently extinct. This is how the story wraps up, blending reality and fiction, giving it a context that, if it were pure reality, would place us in the presence of a dangerous misogynist—and indeed, on a couple of occasions, the film flirts with a slightly misogynistic tone, though it erases it with the final punchline. The psychological representation of this character turns out to be interesting; I didn't find him charismatic as a comedic actor, but he does a great job portraying a subject completely mentally alienated by the comic book, merging two realities into one and walking through life passing as an ordinary, everyday person—simply terrifying!
Ultimately, this reality-fiction aspect is worth considering.
Some curiosities presented by the film: The story is reportedly based on a similar event that happened to the director. Another is the mirror game, the female counterparts to the male characters where we see Dayanara Torres (Yolanda in the movie) and Mónica Steuer. Both play as mirrors to Juan (Mexican) and Raúl (Puerto Rican), since Rebeca is Mexican and Yolanda is Puerto Rican. Now, if this game of doubles is noticeable in the film, well, I didn't realize it, I didn't notice it, or I didn't pay proper attention, or perhaps it wasn't fully achieved (or maybe I just didn't know how to appreciate it). The truth is that it was there in the film.
We are not dealing with a great work of cinema—at least I don't know what Puerto Rican cinema is like in general, I am unfamiliar with it, this being my first approach—especially since, looking at some news online, they praise it way too much, at least for my taste:
· http://www.eldiariony.com/2013/06/12/200-cartas-comedia-y-romance-en-puerto-rico/
· http://www.listindiario.com/entretenimiento/2013/9/27/293774/200-cartas-bien-hecha
The idea is good, it turns out interesting, but it left me with the feeling that it could have been so much more, with a lot more dynamism.
Link to IMDB page:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2082155/
Link to FilmAffinity page:http://www.filmaffinity.com/es/film283670.html
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