From my favorite movies..

Absolutely Fantastic

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

The acting in this movie is really good.

I was a practicing attorney for almost 50 years, so I got familiar with the workings of bureaucracy. This film, I found chillingly accurate and realistic in so many ways. Although conscious that i was watching fiction, I found myself getting quite involved in the female protagonist's effort to get to the British embassy with her infant. There was real palpable tension there. i found myself watching the film twice in rapid succession so as not to miss any nuances in the early exposition. many thrillers are not worth a second viewing. This film is worth the time and viewing effort of any person interested in learning how the world actually works.

What was set up to be a provocative look into Mexico's staggering levels of political and police corruption falls completely flat from third-rate performances, scriptwriting, production, and direction. It is a shame that a project with such noble intent on producing an eye-opening view into being stuck in the midst of this bureaucratic nightmare that is Mexican justice still cannot provide any believability in a dull, flat pulse that mires every scene in boredom. With the largely amateur cast, c-movie technical standards, and monotonous camera-work, Rabbit on the Moon's potentially engaging plot line is rendered limp, even unwatchable, in the important social context it is served. Moderately successful in it's home country, I cannot imagine the movie appealing to anyone else besides the precise demographic it caters to simply due to budget constraints.

This is definitely a very good Mexican film, which is inspired in the unforgettable "Herods Law" and follow the same line; showing a little bit of how things work for Mexican politicians... but is it fiction? yes and no I would say, I think for someone who has not lived under such circumstances it is hard to believe that these things could happen... well, i think that there are even worse things going on sometimes with the corrupted politicians... but indeed, it is not a historical film and it tells a fictional story, it has also a dose of that very Mexican black humor which is hard to understand. Many non-mexicans have asked me how is it possible that mexicans laugh in some scenes of Herod's law and Conejo en la Luna, when what they are showing is our own misery... I say, well my friends, when crying seem to be useless, there are not much way out than laughter... but i know this may sound cynical.-spoilers coming!- One thing I really enjoy of this film is the end... no happy bullsh*t Hollywood end, but bitter reality, the English government giving the poor guy to the Mexican authorities... damn! but what else could happen? The guy that plays the chief of the PGR (something like the Mexican FBI) portrays very well the image that this police division have in Mexican society, can you imagine that in Mexico people are more afraid of cops than thieves, or murderers? although they are actually the same people, with some exceptions I presume. Just watch the film, it's a good one, and although it is fiction, believe when I tell that it is not so far away from reality.By the way... you may be wondering why the film is called "Rabbit on the Moon"... well, i heard it from the mouth of the director on the Berlinale... he explained of course because of the painting that the designer gives to the English girl... the relation is that we mexicans are told when we are children to look for the rabbit shape on the moon, that's different of the "man in the moon" version which i've heard about in Europe... When I look to the moon as a Mexican I see a rabbit, as well as when I see as the Mexican government I see filth... Europeans tend to see a Man on the moon, and what's their image about our government? a rabbit maybe?

It's a pleasure to see a well-achieved Mexican production such as this one. This surprisingly effective thriller gives you a good insight into Mexican politics and justice, mixed up with a nice, tangled plot based on political murder which reminds us of the Ruiz Massieu affair, which unravels adequately at the end, and above all some excellently executed suspense moments. Acting is decent, perhaps the only performance worth mentioning is that of the Macedonio Ramírez character, a dead-on portrayal of a Mexican judicial agent in a position of power. Production values are adequate, perhaps owing to British involvement in the production, and there are some goofs and inconsistencies here and there, but overall the movie feels pretty solid and will please and thrill viewers from beginning to end.