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Midaq Alley

1994, Movie, NR, 140 mins

Midaq Alley: Review

MIDAQ ALLEY | EL CALLEJON DE LOS MILAGROS
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Wonderful, high melodrama from south of the border. In the rundown Mexico City neighborhood known as "El Callejon de los Milagros" -- Alley of Miracles -- three hearts lose their way with dramatic results. Married cantina owner and father of three Don Ru (Ernesto Gomez Cruz) begins to feel an usually strong attraction towards a young male haberdasher (Esteban Soberanes). Neighborhood beauty Alma (Salma Hayek) promises to wait for her lover, Abel (Bruno Bichir), to return from the U.S., but soon falls into the clutches of a suave pimp. And Susanita, the homely, penny-pinching landlady (Margarita Sanz), finally opens her heart and naturally lets in Mr. Wrong. Based on the 1947 novel by Nobel Prize-winning Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfouz, this may sound like the stuff of soap opera, but rarely do suds come this rich. Director Jorge Fons and screenwriter Vincente Lenero have shifted the action from 1940s Cairo to modern-day Mexico City, and nothing is lost in the translation: It's beautifully acted (with a particularly luminous turn by Hayek), and Carlos Markovich's lush cinematography is evocatively soaked in shades of indigo and blue. But the film's best feature is its screenplay: Neatly divided into four chapters, each beginning at the same exact moment on a Sunday afternoon, Lenero's deft adaptation is expansive enough to capture the variety of Alley life while remaining marvelously concise. Fons's sensitive direction, meanwhile, manages the trick of balancing all the drama with quiet moments of self-reflection without ever allowing his momentum to flag. leave a comment --Ken Fox
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