This is one of those films that I'd heard plenty of whispers of but still new little of what it was about. The title makes it pretty obvious where someone's getting their inspiration from.
I've seen it described as a film about a serial killer obsessed with the Saturday Night Fever character set in Chile under Pinochet's dictatorship. That's pretty accurate. What surprised me was the age of the central character. I expected him to be Manero's age, not in what I think is his fifties. The central character has no redeeming qualities. He's still watchable because he says the bare minimum he sees necessary. A lot less than others would deem necessary. To 'see' what he's about you have to watch his face. This keeps you sucked into the character. It's rare I can watch such an unlikable character through a whole film. There's hardly any screen time without him.
I have to praise the actor for portraying such a character. He's definitely a psychopath. All his actions are self serving and some scenes are upsetting. The only understanding I had for the character was that he would do anythign he could get away with to further his desires. Some scenes are toe-curlingly embarrassing. Seeing a man of that age, idolising a character in a film to that extent is bad enough. Seeing him dressed up and dancing as Manero is hideous, especially if he gets it wrong. The actor must have had a bucket by the door to keep his pride in.
I would have liked to have seen more of life in Chile under Pinochet's rule. To be fair though the film wasn't about that and there was plenty in there for the plot. This is definitley not a crowd pleasing film. It's not at all an easy watch. A lot of it is uncomfortable and there's some that is upsetting to say the least. I;m glad I;ve seen it but I doubt I will see it again. It was a good idea for Film4 to show Saturday Night Fever straight afterwards. Although that film is darker than most give it credit for, it's a damn sight lighter than this!
3.5 pawprints out of 5.
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