Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Excellent but underrated film

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

I just watched this movie as part of a screening organized by the Vancouver Latin American Film Festival organizers."How?", I ask, that Argentinians (well, Juan Jose Campanella & co.) keep making these amazing little movies with almost no budget? I'm Mexican, and proud as I may be about the very, very few recent successes Mexican cinema may have, I do think (and, oh, please, don't let nationalisms rise, this is TRUE) Argentinian cinema has a thing or two to teach the entire Latin American movie industry.For starters: the story is so simple, the budget issue is leveled. And no, there's no bank robberies, no kidnappings, no killings, no raping and even curse words are used with such cleverness that they recover their meaning.Second, the script itself, its dialog: it rings true and alive throughout the whole story. Granted: I don't get many of the South American jargon, but I still get the point.Third, the cast. What a marvelous ensemble.Fourth: it's damn funny (check the 'dental retarded' line) and heartwarming as well (without being it preachy; reality smacks down any attempt from "preachines").What gets me is that this movie was released in 2004. It took me 4 years to find out about it. Four years! Why? Why do smart/polished productions like these get the short end of the stick? They're good stories and they're PROFITABLE stories as well! The movie was bringing down the house in the Anglosaxon-filled theater it was shown.I guess it all comes down to numbers. There's too much competition and distributors don't have faith in contemporary gems like these. That's probably what forces its directors to leave for better work fields and put their hands on NorthAmerican TV series like "30 Rock", "House M.D." or "Law and Order: SVU".Hopefully, we'll see more of these Latin American (thank you, Argentina) movies in the future.Did you liked this movie? Try "El hijo de la novia (The Bride's Son, 2001)" or "Valentin (2002)".

Luna de Avellaneda is a 70 years old club, in the good ol' days it had more than 8.000 members. There they teach ballet, you can play basketball, you can chat with your friends... In short: it's your family out of your family. Now, times have changed, things are getting hard and people don't have much money. The club has nowadays less than 300 members, and has lots of debts. They're going' to have to sell the facilities, they say they're gonna build a casino, they say there will be a job for everybody, they say prosperity will be back in town... they say...This is such of a metaphor of the whole Argentinian situation. He uses this club to represent the reality of a country that's been hurt very deeply, surrounded by looters and sick of promises. A country which uses the sense of humor and the sarcasm as a medicine.Two hours of rage, love after love, and tons of hope... (we really need that) *My rate: 8/10

Campanella is the kind of filmmaker that will always try to reach your human side, that will try to get through you by your heart not by your head. His stories have some kind of infallible tenderness, something that goes beyond the fact that you can feel identified with a character or with a certain situation; a tenderness that's universal, that is the same for all man kind. "Luna de Avellaneda" is not at all the exception to the rule: it's just another Campanella movie. A simple plot, with simple characters, very familiar places (maybe too familiar) dialogs that can mix really damn good trivial elements with deep ones, and smart humor, all these things, create the big panoramic picture of what this movie is. Great cast (Darín, Morán, Blanco mostly) and great production (for an Argentinian movie) do the rest. Then, all you have to do is sit and enjoy this happy go lucky movie, where every bad is eclipsed by some great good, and everything is just there to reveal you a lesson to remember, an that's to keep hope, and to hold on to things that matter although time may pass them by."¡Bancate al amor!"

At once universal, in its complex Dickensian portrait of a society, and extremely timely - narrating in microcosm the recent economic crisis in Argentina - Luna de Avellaneda is a beautiful, eloquent film that will resonate deeply with both Argentine viewers and audiences worldwide. Very funny and very moving, the film is rich in human drama, its characters ranging from a small boy whose braces are killing him to an old man on his deathbed, with all sorts of variations in between - a man who discovers his wife is having an affair, a son who wants to escape the catastrophic situation by emigrating to Spain, a drunk who falls in love and tries to reform, a girl from a shanty town who wants to learn ballet. Small miracles occur throughout the film. The dialogues are brilliant, the acting consistently strong. As in reality (though not often depicted in films), economic concerns are never far from anyone's mind, yet at the same time the emotional life persists. Rarely have I seen such a felicitious melding of the two, as when the central character, Roman, whose marriage is failing, goes to buy cologne to try to spice things up and, after perusing the range of possibilities, can only afford the cheapest, and most acrid-smelling, scent on the shelves. Or when a still infuriated divorcee invites her ex to a romantic dinner in a five star restaurant and, after ordering numerous bottles of the best champagne, then slips away leaving him to foot the bill. I cannot recommend this film highly enough.