Abre Los Ojos

[tabuno]

It begins and ends with the eyes. The original version of Vanilla Sky brings to the big screen an expanded theatrical version of the question of reality, what is real and not real? Of what one is experiencing now, is it one's imagination or reality? Twilight Zone, even Buffy: The Vampire Slayer have television episodes which raise these questions and with some effectiveness. In Penelope Cruz' version, the elements of confusion and disorientation are brought to the maximum effect by the movie's conclusion. Unlike a television series that sort of allows for obvious predictability as to the outcome, Abre Los Ojos makes it very difficult for the audience to really know what they are looking at, making the total experience compelling and fasinating. Though the beginning of the movie is slow for American viewers and the acting in the first third of the movie appears more wooden and typical Mexican soap opera, the movie fully develops as the characters become more and more real and unreal at the same time.

[oscar jubis]

Originally posted by tabuno
the acting in the first third of the movie appears more wooden and typical Mexican soap opera, the movie fully develops as the characters become more and more real and unreal at the same time.

"Wooden" is commonly defined as: stiff, lifeless, expressionless. The exact opposite of the kind of acting found in Mexican soap operas.
Compare the performance of Najwa Nimri in the original film with Cameron Diaz's in the equivalent role in the Hollywood remake (Vanilla Sky). The difference between a real actress and a media-manufactured star.

[tabuno]

Webster's Third New International Dictionary's definition 2b of "wooden: lacking in ease, grace, charm, liveliness, lifelikeness, interest, or zest" appears to reflect my perception of Mexican soap opera acting. Their performances do not seem lifelike and their acting seems to be stilted without ease, grace, or charm because it seems they are almost reciting, performing without real life. I find not real interest or zest in many of their scenes because it seems their are just acting out a role instead of actually living and experiencing it.

[arsaib4]

The kind of acting found in Mexican soap operas could be described as "actorly" as Kael used to say. Abre Los Ojos is neither Mexican nor a soap.

[tabuno]

arsaib4 "The kind of acting found in Mexican soap operas could be described as "actorly" as Kael used to say. Abre Los Ojos is neither Mexican nor a soap."

tabuno: "actorly" is a fun, delightful word that seems to capture soap opera performance behavior. It captures the difficulty of having to perform on a daily basis, learn the scripts (or read the scripts off camera) and how such performance become less artful than "work" performances, something does for a living as an actor as opposed to being able to absorb the lines and script as an artform. I agree that Abre Los Ojos really doesn't seem to come across Mexican as a movie, it has a more European flavor in general in its subtlety and original nature of the topic and ending. I also understand that this movie isn't a soap, but the acting at the beginning with the loud, dramatic dialogue reminded me of Mexican soap operas that seemed to fade out during the first third of the movie.