Mariage à Mendoza

Not much to say about this film. It's okay entertainment if you're willing to overlook a few things, that is, if you're are in the right mood. The film throws into the pan as many clichés as necessary to assure a less than challenging viewing, and a few bumps on the road to spice things up enough. In doing this, it does okayish.

On the subject of clichés, the film gets away with a good assortment of them: the Argentine guy who's emotional, invasive and funny, the dark skinned Latina beauty, nice rural people to name a few (clouded by some geographical atrocious inaccuracies, one can't help thinking someone hasn't bothered to pick up a map).

Towards the end there are a few mild surprises in stock, which reveal to be more disconcerting and than instrumental to the plot.

However, the film provides a scene by scene sort of entertainment, keeps a pace that averts boredom, and though narrowly, it escapes the embarrassment zone. Admittedly, was this film American rather than French, it would probably lose some of the few kudos that it walks away with and that justify a thoughtlessly amusing viewing.

A couple of strange French brothers come to Argentina for the marriage of their cousin (played by Benjamin Biolay, who apparently is a huge singer back in France). Before the wedding takes place, they decide to tour the Wine making region in the country in an old car, for which they will be eventually be accompanied by two Argentines, Gonzalo who is the strange manager of the Buenos Aires hotel where they first booked, and the slutty Gabriela. The movie is full of ridiculous, improbable situations. This film seems like a very bad remake of "Sideways" (which was hardly a great movie). A major problem is that virtually all the characters are very unpleasant in the movie, with perhaps the exception of Gabriela, played by the beautiful Paloma Contreras.