San Sebastian Huevos de Oro
(GOLDEN BALLS) ((SPANISH))
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Benito ... Javier Bardem
Claudia ... Maribel Verdu
Marta ... Maria de Medeiros
Rita ... Elisa Touati
Ana ... Raquel Bianca
Miguel ... Alessandro Gassman
The same producer, director and thesp who served up "Jamon, Jamon" try to give one further turn of the screw in this tasteless, meandering film about the adventures of a boorish macho type who strives to rise from construction peon to real estate speculator.
Oozing with gratuitous sex, pic is about as subtle as its title and its promotional poster -- Javier Bardem clutching his crotch. Worse, its rags-to-riches story gets lost about halfway through, after the oversexed lout has an accident and the scene shifts to Miami. This will go as far commercially as a sexy sell alone can take it.
The thin story concerns bumptious bumpkin Benito, doing his military service in northern Africa, who dreams of sports cars, Rolex watches and a mini-harem. After landing in Benidorm, Spain, and after his naive deceptions fail to fool the real sharpies in the construction business, he marries a magnate's daughter (how he does this is never explained), and work on his phallic dream-skyscraper begins.
Amidst orgies (story is a thinly veiled pretext to shoot the sex scenes), and just as his priapic architectural visions take shape, his car crashes and he's left partially paralyzed. Finally tiring of his aberrations, his wife (Maria de Medeiros) throws him out, and our anti-hero moves to Miami with a floozy he has picked up in a disco. Pic ends with Benito sitting on a bed in a Miami room, a ruined man, sobbing.
But pity for this repulsive character cannot be wrung from audiences. Script is weak, with numerous false leads that are never followed up. The sex scenes may help pic chalk up some sales for this meretricious and ultimately non-erotic film. The "balls" of the title are never shown.
TORONTO FEST
Camera (color), Jose Luis Alcaine; editor, Carmen Frias; music, Nicola Piovani; art direction, Antxon Gomez; sound, Marc A. Beldent; associate producers, Manuel Lombardero, Pepo Sol. Reviewed at San Sebastian Film Festival, Sept. 18, 1993. Running time: 92 MIN.
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