Hold Up! (¡Atraco!) paints its ‘inspired by news reports’ narrative with the broadest of brush strokes, compiling a collage of genres around the heist that provides its bigger picture. Thieves pilfer jewels and cops chase robbers, but the film is never quite an action thriller or comic caper; subplots involving state secrets, long-lost children and romantic nurses add both seriousness and satire to Eduard Cortés’ (Winning Streak) fifth cinematic feature.
Set in the Franco-era Spain of 1955 but steeped in the ousting and exile of Argentinian President Juan Peron half a world away, the film seethes with subterfuge, with nothing as it seems. Within its story, co-written by Cortés’ with Pedro Costa (The 13 Roses), Piti Español (Bullying) and Marcelo Figueras (Rosario Tijeras), an endless series of twists and coincidences turn the tale inside out; within its style, the confidence of its central conceit gives way to melodrama and farce, before an ending as sombre as it is bittersweet.
The enterprising Landa (Daniel Fanego, Cowboy) anchors the antics, charged with smoothing Peron’s passage to Spain by greasing bureaucratic wheels. To raise the necessary cash, he pawns the late first lady Evita Peron’s jewellery to an exclusive Madrid establishment; however, their most famous client – Franco’s wife Carmen – takes a shine to Evita’s gems. Forced to keep the treasured trinkets out of Carmen’s clutches, Landa enlists trusted offsider Merello (Guillermo Francella, The Secret in Their Eyes) and eager loyalist Miguel (Nicolás Cabré, Dad for a Day) to stage a fake robbery. Anything that can go wrong does, with the theft devolving into farce.
There’s entertainment to be found in much of the Hold Up!’s flight from one problem scenario to the next, even with the film’s evident soap opera leanings. Cortés directs the chaos with commitment, both to the energetic atmosphere, and to the painstaking recreation of period detail. A jazzy Latin soundtrack adds flavour, accompanied by free-wheeling, nightclub-set dance sequences. Humour is always evident, underscoring the comedy of errors.
Alas, the feature’s swift slide into the more substantial, though driven by ambition and tied to the politics of the time, diffuses rather than solidifies any underlying statement on the inevitability of tragedy in such duplicitous circumstances. Instead, it is left to spirited performances – from the apt odd couple paring of Francella and Cabré, but also from the effervescent Amaia Salamanca (Paranormal Xperience 3D) as the latter’s love interest – to sustain interest, a feat they winningly achieve amidst the sprawling material.
Rating: 2 ½ stars out of 5
Hold Up! (¡Atraco!)
Director: Eduard Cortés
Argentina, 2012, 111 mins
Spanish Film Festival
Melbourne: 12 – 26 June
Perth: 12 – 23 June
Brisbane: 13 – 23 June
Adelaide: 13 – 23 June
Canberra: 18 – 26 June
Sydney: 19 – 3 June
Byron Bay: 20 – 26 June
Actors:
Director:
Format:
Country:
Release:
