What we thought: This would make a perfect art house film. It has all the right elements:
rain, ennui, obsession, motifs and a tragic (in)sensibility.
Chilean games
designer Tomás is trying to start again. New life, new game. His girlfriend left
him with the crushing line, “I never knew I could do better”. She’s taken
everything they had – except an album by Serge Gainsbourg and some unreliable memories.
Self-absorbed beyond millennial
navel-gazing, Tomás is not a good neighbour, friend, son, brother or casual
lover. He made all the wrong choices. Now his best mate is a successful rock
star (with the band Tomás left), his ex-girlfriend is in Antarctica and he
cannot up his narrative game. His university teaching gig depends on him being
a games designer, but ever since Bimbo – the elephant that can jump but doesn’t
come down again – his IDEAS book is full of non-starters.
Adventures with
Tomás are just around the corner. He has big plans but planning is as far as he gets. His
imaginary world and reality overlap as he floats into one situation after
another until he finds himself onstage at a Satanists’ meeting, talking about
the end of the world.
This is a darkly
comic insight into a barely functioning adult who can shave, make coffee and single-mindedly
try to rewind his world. Symbols of home and escape abound: mountains encircling Santiago, the
hole in the ceiling, the plastic windmills, chewing-gum constellations and our not-quite-hero’s
decision to camp in a tent in his own living-room.
A book to make you
sigh, smile and acknowledge the internal loop of self-deception, all the while
hoping Tomas might still bring his elephant back down.
You’ll enjoy this if you liked:
Model Behaviour by Jay McInerey, L’Etranger by Albert
Camus or The Ten O’Clock Horses by Laurie Graham
Avoid if you don’t like: Languor, introspection,
fractured storytelling
Ideal accompaniments: Piscola, sopaipillas and Ana Tijoux’s 1977.
No comments:
Post a Comment