Customer Reviews

Eldorado

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

ELDORADO is a road movie with a difference; the humor's subtle here, the heart's subterranean, the little lessons from life usually learned in this kind of mismatched buddy flick muted, at best. But writer/director/star Bouli Lanners knows what he's about, and his film gets under your skin and stays there for days. Haunting images, excellent acting, memorable soundtrack. ELDORADO richly deserved the honor it took at Cannes, and is highly recommended to all adventurous fans of foreign films.

A man drives home and discovers that his house is broken into by a scared drug addict looking for money to use for a busride back to his parents' home in the country. After seeing that the intruder is unarmed and scared, he lets him relax and volunteers to drive him back to his parents' home the next day. Why? Because the older man connects with the younger intruder. What keeps viewers watching is why.

Both men have secrets they are hiding. Both reveal them during the course of the movie.

The plot of this movie takes place "along the road," where they meet every imaginable flawed character: a car collector, a nudist, bikers and drug pushers. Is anyone normal? The older man's hair is never combed and he's wearing an oil-stained mechanic's overalls. The younger man never takes off his old cap.

Most of the conversation between the men takes place in the older man's (Yvan, played by Bouli Lanners who also directs this movie) car or at rest stops along the way. The dialogue is laconic. One senses that neither trusts the other. Elie, the younger man (played by Fabrice Adde), never gains the trust nor shows any comfort around Yvan. Yvan wants to, yet resists, to be the younger man's older brother. Characters develop as various scenes unfold and we see their reactions and learn of their intentions. In the end we are comforted that the end has come but it's an end without resolution.

Scenes of open fields, billowing clouds, wet country roads all add to the melancholy of this movie. The sountrack is in English and the car is a 1979 Chevloret station wagon. Eerieness and absurd suspense fill in the voids. At best this is a convincing man flick of two confused men looking for acceptance in a strange universe.

4+ stars.

This movie is terrific. It was my favorite of the 2009 Palm Springs Film Festival. The director/lead actor and supporting cast are excellent -- it is hard to believe they are acting and not "being." I recommend this highly -- you will become completely immersed in this snapshot of the characters' lives.

There are some stories that start in an unfamiliar place, follow a completely unpredictable path, and land somewhere...else. Bouli Lanners' strange and wonderful road movie, ELDORADO, is such a tale.

Here's the story. A used car salesman drives a drug-addicted young man home...along two-lane highways in rural Belgium. But home is not as it should be. So he drives the kid back to the big city.

But road movies are rarely about destinations. They are about what happens between travelers along the way. And a whole lot happens to these offbeat travelers on their journey.

There are the predictable road movie moments: the falling asleep at the wheel near-miss, the broken down in the middle of nowhere scene. But these are handled so imaginatively, so not-cliché: a very naked man steps out of his RV to offer assistance, a local yokel has a fetish for accident scenes.

Both characters are haunted by lost relationships--and it is this point of connection that keeps them together, moving forward. Until there is nowhere left to go. And this relationship is lost, too.

ELDORADO is funny, heartbreaking, strange, and incredibly entertaining from first to last frame...a must-have addition to any home film library.

For no apparent reason, an antique car dealer decides to drive a petty thief and (apparently) recovering addict to his parent's home and then to a city. The dealer is rather quiet, but there is pent up sadness in him, like he is trying to help the thief for some personal reason. The thief is talkative, dumb, and damaged, realistically funny yet pathetic. Their dialogue is a classic of dysfunction, convoluted about things that don't matter - like whether to smoke inside even though there are no cigarettes - but that still get to an important place on occasion. They go through a series of comic meetings with very strange people, all of them fantastic yet completely believable, in the best tradition of cinema magic. Even the most banal incidents are perfectly sculpted with truly fine acting.

Of course, along the road more and more is revealed of the situation of each life. It is very moving and sad, doesn't really point to recovery or any durable friendship for either of them, and ends on a depressing note that reminds the dealer of the state of his life.

Warmly recommended.

Beautifully shot (with scenes like this - [...]), this small movie about two loners embarking on a bizarre journey across the Belgium countryside is both spectacular and crazy.
Yvan is a quick-tempered 40-year-old vintage car dealer while Elie is a young burglar and ex-junkie. Both are trying to piece their lives together. This funny and warm film is a great delight to watch.