Sundance 2008

Mancora

 (Spain-Peru)

Pic's biggest problem is its sullen protag, Santiago (Jason Day), first seen learning of his father's suicide over his cell phone while boffing a chick at a club. Drug-addled, aimless and temperamental, Santiago is on the verge of leaving Lima to get away from it all when, in a sympathetic gesture, his long-absent stepsister Ximena (Pataky) shows up with her self-centered husband Inigo (Enrique Murciano) from New York.

The threesome hop in a car and head north for surfer paradise Mancora. Some weed and a stoner attitude supplied by Brazilian hitchhiker Batu (Phellipe Haagensen) loosen everyone up a bit, but not enough for Inigo, who jumps ship temporarily.

Once up in Mancora, however, the full-time party vibe and abundance of nubile international flesh brings down everyone's defenses, and pants, notably in an is-this-the-right-thing-to-do beach tryst between Santiago and Ximena, and in some sizzling multiple-partners action at an all-night blowout. Mancora may not remain such a sleepy-looking, undiscovered oceanside gem after South Americans get a whiff of this.

All the same, the principal characters never engage much interest; they're almost always carping at one another about something, and electricity is lacking among the actors. Day provides no inner life for the fundamentally unsympathetic Santiago, and Pataky's Ximena seems like she should have better things to do than hang around with him or her unreliable husband.

Given the lackluster figures in the foreground, pic's most appealing aspect, at least to foreign eyes, is the scenery, providing a nice glimpse of the seldom-seen coastline from gray, wintry Lima to the more inviting climes more than 750 miles to the north.

Tech and music package is strong.

Camera (color, HD-to-35mm), Leandro Filloy; editors, Luis Carballar, Ricardo de Montreuil; music, Angelo Milli; music supervisor, Lynn Fainchtein; production designer, Miguel Angel Alvarez; associate producers, Oscar Teran, Xavier Manrique; line producer, Margarita Morales Macedo. Reviewed at Sundance Film Festival (World Cinema -- competing), Jan. 22, 2008. Running time: 100 MIN.