In the past decade there's been much coverage of Escobar's life in film and television. If it's "El Patron del Mal", "Narcos", "Paradise Lost" even "Blow" or the recent "American Made". There are plenty of good and interesting adaptations of the real life events which involved Escobar. So the question is if there even was anything else to tell? Well, "Loving Pablo" is based on the book by reporter Virginia Vallejo and it focuses on her relationship with Pablo. It's pretty much told from her perspective and what she had to deal with by knowing the man. Sure, that's another angle to go with. To be honest, I only got curious when I saw which people were involved in the making. Spanish director/writer Fernando León de Aranoa takes the helm. I highly enjoyed his film "Mondays in the Sun", so I know he's a competent filmmaker. And then of course we got Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz as the two main characters. I thought their chemistry and interactions in "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" were fantastic. With this in mind there had to be some merit. After watching it I ultimately think that the film is a mixed bag. There things to enjoy, but after all the "Narcos"-shows it does fall in to the "Been there, done it all" realm.
The biggest problem is that it's in the English language. I know that Bardem, who also produced, was actively trying to convince many studios for it to be in Spanish. But none of them were willing to give them the green-light unless it was more international so it could appeal to a wider audience. The film suffered greatly because of that. They could still have spoken English whenever there's interaction with characters from the United States, but a good deal of authenticity is lost. And frankly, it was distracting to me. It's not bad filmmaking wise. León de Aranoa utilizes many long takes where he finds creative camera angles. The build-up of tension is executed well. As soon as the intense man-hunt begins about half way through, then momentum is not lost. I liked that there's a way to understand the motives and human sides of Pablo. Yet in the next scene you are immediately frightened of him again. Bardem's resemblance to Escobar is uncanny. Like Charlize Theron so amazingly did in "Tully", Bardem's physical transformation makes him fade away. That added a great deal for the immersion. When he appears you forget you're watching the actor. But then again, when he starts conversing in English I'm left underwhelmed. Because if it was in it's authentic language, it could have been so, so, so much more affective. Cruz is also fantastic at what she does. Her character changes quite a bit throughout the story. Going from curious and happy to hardened and emotionally unstable. You get that she loved Pablo, but hated Escobar. That is presented clearly.
If you've already seen the shows on Netflix and so on, then you're not missing much. That's sad when you have great talent at hand and a director who has a good flair of how to create unnerving scenes. I wanna highlight the camera work again. Many set-pieces have a good use of blocking, light and inventiveness to make everything look less lazy. It's a movie made by people who know what they're doing filmmaking and performance wise, but it was made under unfortunate circumstances. With one mistake that made the whole project suffer. It's the same story of Escobar again, yet you get to understand him and Vallejo's relation. And more importantly why she loved and hated him at the same time. If you wanna see Escobar's life from that perspective, then check it out for curiosity. I wanna give it merit where merit is due, but I was left disappointed.
The biggest problem is that it's in the English language. I know that Bardem, who also produced, was actively trying to convince many studios for it to be in Spanish. But none of them were willing to give them the green-light unless it was more international so it could appeal to a wider audience. The film suffered greatly because of that. They could still have spoken English whenever there's interaction with characters from the United States, but a good deal of authenticity is lost. And frankly, it was distracting to me. It's not bad filmmaking wise. León de Aranoa utilizes many long takes where he finds creative camera angles. The build-up of tension is executed well. As soon as the intense man-hunt begins about half way through, then momentum is not lost. I liked that there's a way to understand the motives and human sides of Pablo. Yet in the next scene you are immediately frightened of him again. Bardem's resemblance to Escobar is uncanny. Like Charlize Theron so amazingly did in "Tully", Bardem's physical transformation makes him fade away. That added a great deal for the immersion. When he appears you forget you're watching the actor. But then again, when he starts conversing in English I'm left underwhelmed. Because if it was in it's authentic language, it could have been so, so, so much more affective. Cruz is also fantastic at what she does. Her character changes quite a bit throughout the story. Going from curious and happy to hardened and emotionally unstable. You get that she loved Pablo, but hated Escobar. That is presented clearly.
If you've already seen the shows on Netflix and so on, then you're not missing much. That's sad when you have great talent at hand and a director who has a good flair of how to create unnerving scenes. I wanna highlight the camera work again. Many set-pieces have a good use of blocking, light and inventiveness to make everything look less lazy. It's a movie made by people who know what they're doing filmmaking and performance wise, but it was made under unfortunate circumstances. With one mistake that made the whole project suffer. It's the same story of Escobar again, yet you get to understand him and Vallejo's relation. And more importantly why she loved and hated him at the same time. If you wanna see Escobar's life from that perspective, then check it out for curiosity. I wanna give it merit where merit is due, but I was left disappointed.