This
film was made possible by Margaret Thatcher. By standing firm against Argentine
aggression in the Falklands, she fatally undermined the despised military
regime. You might think progressives would give credit where itis due, but
obviously not. Regardless, the fall of the junta left former intelligence
services employee Arquímedes Puccio unemployed. With the winking protection of colleagues
still in the military, Puccio put his very particular set of skills to work as the
head of his own family kidnapping racket. The rise and fall of the Puccios is
dramatized in Pablo Trapero’s The Clan (trailer here), Argentina’s
official foreign language Oscar submission, which opens this Friday in New
York.
Puccio
looks like a mild mannered sort, but he maintains a profoundly unhealthy hold
over his eldest son Alejandro/Alex. Alejandro is popular within his social
circle. He is a star member of the national rugby team and has just opened an
aquatic sporting goods store below their flat. However, the patriarch will not
let him leave the family business. His two younger brothers simply aren’t nearly
as reliable during the abduction process.
Poor
Alejandro also feels rather bad about setting up their first victim, Ricardo
Manoukian, a classmate from a wealthy family. Unfortunately, Alejandro did not
understand his father’s M.O. will be to collect the ransom money and then make
the hostage disappear to eliminate any possible witnesses. Of course, their
final kidnapping will not work out so well, as we can tell from the in media
res opening and the periodic flashforwards.
Clan is more like a
series of high quality true crime re-enactment than a sweeping crime saga in
the Godfather tradition. It becomes
quite an object of fascination, but is never truly engrossing. Although plenty
of time is devoted to the toxic Puccio father-and-son relationship, Trapero and
co-screenwriters Esteban Student and Julian Loyola never really get inside
anyone’s head. Stylistically, it is not so very different from Cédric Jimenez’s
The Connection, but it does not have
the same sweep as the French film or the extensive law & order POV
characters.
Playing
at least a decade beyond his years, Guillermo Francella is pretty darned
riveting as Old Man Puccio. He is like a veritable black hole of parental
dysfunction. Unfortunately, just as Alejandro is no match for the manipulative Arquímedes,
Peter Lanzani wilts next to Francella. Much like Johnny Depp in Black Mass, Francella dominates and
elevates what would otherwise be a very routine crime drama.
