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The Disappearance Of Garcia Lorca

1997, Movie, NR, 114 mins

The Disappearance Of Garcia Lorca: Review

DISAPPEARANCE OF GARCIA LORCA, THE | DEATH IN GRANADA | LORCA
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This unsatisfying thriller, set in the 1930s and '50s, is only nominally about the famous Spanish writer. Journalist Ricardo Fernandez's (Esai Morales) love of the plays and poetry of Federico Garcia Lorca (Andy Garcia) begins in his youth. The year is 1936, the Spanish Civil War is erupting, and 14-year-old Ricardo (Naim Thomas) and his pal Jorge (Gonzalo Penche) live for Garicia Lorca's work. Ricardo attends the premiere of Garcia Lorca's play Yerma, and even gets to meet his idol in person. Shortly after, Jorge is shot and killed by Fascist soldiers, and Garcia Lorca -- who's been persecuted both for his Republican politics and his homosexuality -- is assassinated. Years later, Ricardo is living in Puerto Rico and working on a book about Garcia Lorca. Still haunted by the past, Ricardo returns to Spain, now almost two decades into Franco's repressive dictatorship, to unearth the exact circumstances of the writer's death. A project involving some of Hollywood's best-known Latin actors (the late Raul Julia intended to play Garcia Lorca), this labor of love falls far short of its ambitions. Gifted performers such as Edward James Olmos and Jeroen Krabbe are forced to mouth painfully stilted dialogue, while Morales' character is thoroughly undermined by his California-inflected line-readings. Giancarlo Giannini's turn as Taxi, a comic hanger-on, is just plain goofy. The film's set design, costumes and locations -- especially the Alhambra, in Garcia Lorca's native Granada -- are lovely to look at, but Puerto Rican director Marcos Zurinaga's insistence on looking for a happy ending amid the tragedy make this well-intentioned washout feel like a hokey send-up of political thrillers. leave a comment --Sandra Contreras
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