Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Didn't like the movie at all. It's the story of a bored man who gets into trouble just because he doesn't know what to do. It was disappointing. The ending is what you expect in any Argentinean movie... Just nothing. I give it 3 stars only because Dolores Fonzi is the cutest thing alive. I do not recommend it. If you want to see a good Argentinean movie, go for ¨Relatos Salvajes¨ or ¨El Secreto Se Sus Ojos¨. And If you really feel like going for an indie movie, I even liked ¨Wakolda¨ better than this one... Or ¨XXY¨.

The Aura (2005)A special film, set in southern Argentina, that plays with the interior mechanizing thoughts of a taxidermist with epilepsy who by accident is on the fringe of a major crime. The leading man, Esteban, played by Ricardo Darin, is penetrating and subtle and persuasive. The story supports his high level of sheer acting by turning and turning further as you go. There are times it seems slow, for sure, but the deliberate pace is something like the deliberate thinking done on screen by Esteban.One of the brave strengths of the style of filming has become common in the last decade or two--we see something happen and only later realize it is completely imagined by the character. The surprise is fun, and your mind has to quickly reposition yourself as a viewer to what the current reality actually is. This happens right away and it's a brilliant kind of storytelling. In a similar way, we see Esteban's thoughts race visually as he thinks through his answers--a fast series of mental images from earlier observations has him logically assembling his next move right before our eyes. The effect is both fast and engaging. And Darin is so likable and respectable in his quiet brooding, it's easy to join him in his head.Director and writer Fabian Bielinsky shows brilliant planning and a lyrical photographic vision (with cinematographer Checco Varese), and it's a sad loss to read he died just after the release of this movie. If you can adjust to the methodical pace, and enjoy the construction and psychology of movies like this ("Memento" comes to mind as a flashier American film in a similar vein), you'll really appreciate it. Yes, it reveals its cleverness a little too much sometimes, or adds characters (like the guy at the casino) who are interesting and yet end up a it peripheral. You can study and quibble over the details in a movie like this. But overall it's a special film, worth watching with appreciation.

I am trying to understand the contribution of sound to cinematic narrative. It seems multidimensional compared to the linearity of the delivered narrative and three dimensional nature of the cinematic vocabulary. Though the detail we need to sustain narrative is missing, music (and sound generally) can form the skeleton of a rich narrative. It will take me some time to wade through this with the Zimmers and Elfmans distracting.Meanwhile, here is a film that understands the power of silence. The story revolves around man who takes dead things and makes them look as if they were alive and making noise. He himself has seizure disorder and often crosses that boundary between silence-blindness and speaking-seeing. In between, right on the edge of that transition, is "the aura," a strange supernatural state where dreams diffuse. Some people experience it as colors or sound; range pretty much covers everything. This man experiences it as a narrative, which form the "film within." Spanish-speaking filmmakers have a long tradition of interweaving realism with other layers, sometimes unfortunately called magical. The evolution of this explores all sorts of folds, and I believe that the possibilities are roughly the same explored by those trying to mix on-screen singing into a realistic narrative. It is not a reach to see the taxidermy and abandoned wife segments as more "real," and the heist segments as "in aura," with a transitional segment early in the movie where the heist is imagined from the alert state. Describing it this way does not do justice to the construction.The inner bits are noir-driven, meaning that there is an inevitability, a conspiracy of the cosmos. It has gambling, accidental engagements, partial but not adequate glimpses of what is going on. This filmmaker's last film worked this sort of thing with the imposition of the con game on "reality." Here he is much more masterful, seamless enough that he is able to give us both noir and an outer awareness, that recognition of the aura.If you think of it, the power that noir has over us is the way we see ourselves as helplessly buffeted by forces. But the form has become so formulaic that it loses its effectiveness, its art. This solution, what this filmmaker has done here is brilliant. Unfortunately forces beyond his control took him away from us into his own world now.The effectiveness of the noir dynamic here is accentuated by what he takes away. He takes the sound away. There are long pauses here. Time stands still for the viewer while the world moves. It is more effective than any score could be.Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

Ricardo Darin's Espinosa portrait is just like my reflection in the mirror. I found myself in it. Fabian Bielinsky's 3rd directing and 5th screenplay experience happened to be his last step of his career. With El Aura, he carries us away into the world of a misunderstood desolate man. For most films, people don't like reading a review or collecting detailed information before actually seeing the film. But if the film you're approaching is a mystery and cannot be understood easily in the first view, you should get some clue of it before watching. Anyhow, El Aura is one of them. Esteban Espinosa earns his life with taxidermy, filling up animal hides of wild-life. He is a naturalist and jack of all trades, has a strong memory and is very observant. One day waiting at a queue at the bank, he shares his most marvellous dream -to rob a bank- with his friend; while he is being offered to accompany his friend for shoot day out in the forest. On a Monday, they settle into a motel in the forest, where they weren't hosted well enough and were questioned if they are local; putting them on the jitters. With this bad mood, they start arguing while hunting for deers. After his friend insulted him and left him alone; he gets caught into a major epilepsy fit for a moment and falls in a faint. When he wakes up he is unconscious; and while aiming to shoot a deer, he suddenly turns his rifle to an old man walking in the forest and shoots him. Gaining back his conscious, he goes near to the man he shot; whose cell-phone starts to ring. Espinosa takes his cellphone and his i.d. ; then hides the corpse in a pit. To avoid the trouble he fell into, he remains calm and turns back to motel to stay there longer than planned. His friend goes back to the city, then he starts stepping towards his mysterious journey; when he finds out that the man he killed is the owner of the motel. The screenplay segments work completely perfect: Plot is very well built, script is written professionally in a plain format, story developing at its best, character developing is well crafted, and the main theme is so wisely gives multiple messages and views. Everything we see, we hear, we witness are elements of a complete mystery. This film needs to be seen very carefully. Flashback sequences will be refreshing our memory of the earlier scenes where it's completely necessary. Also it's clearly to see that the editing and the full post-production job with music and sound effects are best fit. I find it essential to analyze Esteban Espinosa's characterization work. There are 4 basic factors that differentiates Espinosa's character: 1/His life... 2/His dreams... 3/His self-defensive attitudes... 4/His disability:EpilepsyHe is not happy living his life on his own. He has a hidden adventurous character. He likes trouble, he likes testing his limits. Thus he pokes his nose into everything. He steals, collects and carries with him almost everything he thinks it's useful. In fact, Esteban Espinosa character may be an awesome sample of a Point-and-click Adventure Game. His character has been designed to be another Guybrush or another George Stobbart. Overall, El Aura is among the best of all-time Mystery/Adventure movies.