Ana (Giannini) and Papa (Perez-Bannen) wake their two young kids, Lucia (Ahumada) and Manuel (Freifeld), early one Thursday morning and set off from their home in Santiago, Chile. So begins a long weekend trip to the north of the country. At first thrilled with the idea of a family excursion, ten-year-old Lucia slowly begins to realize all may not be well with her parents' relationship as the struggling couple attempt to put on a brave face for their children's benefit.
The idea of viewing adult issues from a child's eyes is rarely handled well by film-makers. Usually the child character becomes a vessel for the creator's agenda, often through a crude narrative voice-over, resulting in an unrealistically insightful child. Last year we had two horrific examples of this trend in 'Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close' and 'Beasts of the Southern Wild'. In the past week alone, however, I've seen three examples of how it should be handled. The stunning 'Mud', which I'm temporarily forbidden to review until its May 1st embargo expires, uses a Mark Twain style approach while the otherwise irritating 'Post Tenebras Lux' employs magic realist imagery to convey the confusion of how an infant absorbs the world around them. 'Thursday Till Sunday' is easily the most naturalistic of the three, but it's also the most tedious.
Sotomayor's debut employs the 'Tom & Jerry' technique of Spielberg's 'E.T' to convey the perspective of young Lucia. The use of dialogue is fractured, teasing us with snippets of half-heard conversations. While it does suggest the frustration of an inquisitive child's thirst for information, it ultimately becomes equally frustrating for the viewer. Sotomayor literally straps us into the back seat for much of the movie, giving us practically nothing in the way of story or character. It's left to young Ahumada to carry the film, which she does well, but it's too large a burden for a child to carry. After an hour on this journey you'll find yourself subconsciously asking "Are we there yet?"
The idea of viewing adult issues from a child's eyes is rarely handled well by film-makers. Usually the child character becomes a vessel for the creator's agenda, often through a crude narrative voice-over, resulting in an unrealistically insightful child. Last year we had two horrific examples of this trend in 'Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close' and 'Beasts of the Southern Wild'. In the past week alone, however, I've seen three examples of how it should be handled. The stunning 'Mud', which I'm temporarily forbidden to review until its May 1st embargo expires, uses a Mark Twain style approach while the otherwise irritating 'Post Tenebras Lux' employs magic realist imagery to convey the confusion of how an infant absorbs the world around them. 'Thursday Till Sunday' is easily the most naturalistic of the three, but it's also the most tedious.