Cannes. Lion's Den.

"In his breakthrough film Crane World (1999), Pablo Trapero displayed his mastery at depicting wide open urban spaces and liberating patches of sky in his native Buenos Aires," writes Howard Feinstein for Screen Daily.

"Then, in Born and Bred (2006), he created a parallel world in nature, capturing the endless, intoxicating landscape of Patagonia. Now, with Lion's Den (Leonera) he successfully and gracefully shifts in the reverse direction, creating a suffocating, claustrophobic environment within women's prisons - specifically those that house mothers and their young children."

"Martina Gusman stars here as Julia, who wakes up one morning a bloody mess, with two male bloody messes in the apartment with her, and subsequently winds up accused of murder. And she's pregnant," writes Glenn Kenny. "The film follows several years of her life, chronicling her finessing of prison politics, the fierce bond she creates with her son, her fraught relations with her wealthy mother (Elli Medeiros), and more. Gusman's performance is what most critics would call a 'powerhouse' (unless somebody's pulling my leg, she was pregnant for real during the part of the shoot in which her character was) and Pablo Trapero's direction is what you would call 'remarkably assured.'"

"Situated somewhere between neo-realist study and standard women in prison pic, Lion's Den too frequently wanders into common territories to make the material its own, though pic's overall style and Martina Gusman's bold lead have a great deal to recommend them," writes Jay Weissberg in Variety.

"Lion's Den is marvelously shot and acted, constantly surprising, and completely focused on Julia's struggle to get from one moment, or one day, to the next one rather than through some formulaic story arc," writes Salon's Andrew O'Hehir. "It's a terrifically engaging story about a woman who is damaged, angry, beautiful and indomitable, who loves her son and who remains a mystery to us, and to herself, right to the end."

"It wasn't bad: steroided social-realism with much rattling of bars, tooth-and-claw survival techniques and cat-fights aplenty," writes the Guardian's Xan Brooks.

Competing.

Update, 5/16: "It’s a fairly simply story, though Trapero makes the most of it by only revealing salient facts at sporadic intervals and by focusing so closely on character: not just the superbly played Julia, but also her mother Sofia and Marta, a fellow inmate who helps the novice adjust to prison life," writes Geoff Andrew for Time Out. "As the film slowly zooms in not so much on what exactly happened in Julia’s apartment but on how she’ll respond to the child and its future, Trapero teases out the various social, psychological and ethical strands of a morally complex situation with commendable clarity; and as in his Familia Rodante, what can sometimes seem a fairly straightforward film of no particular originality or consequence is transformed by an ending that is at once pleasingly ambiguous and almost unexpectedly affecting."

Update, 5/17: "As important as the prison is as a backdrop, with its cursing, lustful, hair-pulling inmates and their hordes of tiny tots, Julia remains a solid axis for the story," writes Deborah Young in the Hollywood Reporter. "Gusman, who has been involved on the production side of all Trapero's films since El Bonaerense and who also played in Born and Bred, has a modern intensity that blows away the rest of the cast."

Updates, 5/18: "Some of the classic tropes of slammer dramas are here - the shower-room brawl, the spell in solitary, the riot," writes Jonathan Romney in the Independent. "But Trapero's hard-bitten realist approach - he shoots in actual prisons, and casts real-life guards and inmates - gives the film a distinctive steeliness. Expect Martina Gusman to be a leading contender for the Best Actress Oscar."

"There's a rough-hewn realism in Lion's Den, but there's also a subtle lyrical quality to it; the performances are impressive but unforced, the camerawork contemplated without being showy," writes James Rocchi at Cinematical.

"Trapero's battle is to keep clichés at bay, and through subtle camerawork and Gusman's acting, this is grippingly managed," writes the Observer's Jason Solomons.

Updates, 5/21: "With her work in this film, Gusman becomes the early front-runner for Cannes' Best Actress prize, and if I see a better performance all festival I will be very surprised," writes Matt Noller at the House Next Door.

Gusman "is strenuous but not persuasive, in a gritty film whose heart is too soft," writes Mary Corliss for Time.

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Coverage of the coverage: Cannes 08.

Last year: Cannes @ 60. And Cannes 06.

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Posted by dwhudson at May 15, 2008 7:57 AM