Retro Tetro...

Tetro
Starring: Vincent Gallo, Maribel Verdu, Alden Ehrenreich
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Rating: 3 (out of 5)

Summary: Bennie (Alden Ehrenreich) arrives in Buenos Aires looking for his older brother Tetro. Upon his discovery he finds that the brother he once worshipped is a shadow of his once creative self. Bennie must piece together his brother's past by deciphering the unfinished play that Tetro wants to forget...

The first original script from Francis Ford Coppola in 30 years, Tetro arrives in the UK riding on a wave of critical and professional praise.

There is no doubt that Coppola has lost none of his talent for setting up a shot. The eclectic European architecture of Buenos Aires looms over proceedings with an almost supernatural quality but also acts as a romantic foreground for the creative and eccentric characters. The use of black and white accentuates this romanticism, harking back to glamorous European films of old when every shot was framed like a painting and symbolism gave the audience a glimpse into the psyche of the characters on screen.

This is the work of a fighting fit first time director not a jaded, seasoned 70 year old professional. Coppola uses every opportunity he can to show he can move the camera in a way that no one esle can and he is keen to prove his ability in the craft of filmmaking. Perhaps coming off pedestrian fare like The Rainmaker and the retina burning Jack, Coppola has a point to prove. He can still be that maverick auteur of the 1970s that produced classics like The Godfather and Apocolypse Now with a determined arrogance.

However, even though the quality on show from the director and editor Walter Murch (you have to give him the credit he deserves - he directed the best childrens flick of all time Return to Oz!) is second to none, Tetro managed to leave me cold, uninspired and feeling like I had been told a joke that I just didn't understand. Despite my bald head, I felt like a dumb blonde.

The cause of this could be two things. The script is full of questions. Those intangible, philosophical questions that scream pretentious Euro tosh. Coppola's screenplay manages to be so esoteric as to be detrimental to the any relationship that can be struck up between the characters on screen and the audience in the auditorium - the only one managing to transcend this being the beautiful Maribel Verdu as Tetro's long suffering partner Miranda. The pace of the film is as languid as siesta time in a Spanish narcoleptics house and there is no sense of urgency as the film reaches its dramatic climax, with Vincent Gallo's performance as Tetro having all the charm of a sulking teenager.

Tetro is so fantastic to look at that you can almost forgive the shortcomings in the script and performances. Coppola loves his art and that is clearly on display with each frame of celluloid lovingly caressed by the camera, but writing is not his craft. There is certainly is life in the old dog but you can't teach it new tricks.