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Review: 'Once Upon a Time in Mexico' dazzling
« on: Sep 12th, 2003, 2:55pm » |
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Review: 'Once Upon a Time in Mexico' dazzling
By Christy Lemire
Associated Press
Friday, September 12, 2003 Posted: 1:11 PM EDT (1711 GMT)
(AP) -- Simultaneously an homage to Sergio Leone's Westerns and a goofy send-up of them, "Once Upon a Time in Mexico" might be the best film Robert Rodriguez has ever made.
It's definitely the best film he's made in a while. While the original "Spy Kids" was a giddy roller-coaster ride in 2001, the two subsequent installments have grown increasingly bombastic, especially this summer's "Spy Kids 3-D."
So it's a joy to see Rodriguez return to the kind of film he made his name with, the kind he does best: a rock 'n' roll Western that has stylized violence but doesn't take itself too seriously.
Similar to Leone's trilogy in the mid-1960s -- "A Fistful of Dollars," "For A Few Dollars More" and "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly," all starring Clint Eastwood as The Man With No Name -- this is the final piece in Rodriguez's mariachi trilogy. Even the title is a takeoff on Leone's 1968 film "Once Upon a Time in the West" and his 1984 epic "Once Upon a Time in America."
First came 1992's "El Mariachi" (which Rodriguez famously made for a reported $7,000), then "Desperado," which starred Antonio Banderas as a gun-toting guitar player. Now, Banderas is back as El Mariachi -- "They call him 'El,' as in 'the,' " longtime Rodriguez player Danny Trejo points out.
Banderas gets top billing in a cast that has to be one of the most gorgeous ever assembled: Johnny Depp, Salma Hayek, Eva Mendes and Enrique Iglesias co-star. He brings a quiet strength and a spirituality to the film, but it's Depp who steals every scene he's in as Sands, a sleazy CIA agent.
Depp plays Sands with the same unpredictability that makes him the best thing by far in this summer's "Pirates of the Caribbean." He's more low-key and sarcastic here, though, smarmy in a strangely sexy way as he tries to manipulate everyone around him.
Not that plot matters much, because "Once Upon a Time in Mexico" is all about shootouts and standout performances. For what it's worth, Sands tries to persuade the reluctant mariachi to undermine an assassination attempt on the Mexican president by cartel boss Barrillo (Willem Dafoe).
El Mariachi also wants to avenge the killing of his wife (Hayek) and daughter, which we see in vivid flashbacks. So he rounds up his band of mariachis (Iglesias and Marco Leonardi), they grab their guitars and guns and go to work.
Like all the best Westerns, nearly everyone is dirty or has some sort of sordid past -- even the good guys, like former FBI agent Jorge (Ruben Blades). As their paths wind toward each other on the Day of the Dead, the film turns darker and more violent.
It still maintains the signature look Rodriguez has honed after more than a decade of multitasking as director, writer, cinematographer and editor (or as he phrases it himself in the opening titles, "Once Upon a Time in Mexico" was "shot, chopped and scored by Robert Rodriguez"). There's a music video-style cool about the way his digital video camera swoops around his characters, then zooms in for extreme close-ups of the gunslingers' eyes (which is also very Leone).
And the imagination that ran amok in the "Spy Kids" movies seems perfectly controlled here. A sequence in which Hayek and Banderas swing from floor to floor off the front of a five-story building, while being chained at the wrist and dodging bullets, is especially thrilling.
Unlike Rodriguez' recent family films, this is a giddy roller-coaster ride for grown-ups only.
"Once Upon a Time in Mexico," a Columbia Pictures and Dimension Films release, is rated R for strong violence and language.
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