It's
Not You, It's Me (*1/2)
review by Jon
Waterman
Javier and Maria are newlyweds going through an interesting
transition. They’re looking to move to Miami to start
life over. Maria reluctantly goes first, so that Javier can
tie up the loose ends there in Argentina and give his hospital
time to find a replacement. After renting the apartment and
quitting his job, he’s finally ready to head out to Florida
where plans seem to be in place for them both. On the way to
the airport, Maria calls and breaks up with Javier, because
she cheated on him and needs time. Now Javier still has to
start a new life, just not exactly how he had imagined it.
Doesn’t it sound like an uproarious comedy? Well, you’d
be right in assuming it’s not. If it were marketed as
a drama, people would walk out afterwards wanting to shoot
themselves, but since the audience goes into it expecting to
laugh, they only walk out disappointed. Javier doesn’t
do anything funny throughout the whole movie. He mostly mopes
and scares away everyone he knows. When he gets back into the
dating scene, the opportunities for comedy are wasted on predictable
jokes we’ve all seen fall flat several times before.
The only legitimately funny moment is when we watch two dogs
hump in the park for a really long time. If that’s the
best the movie has to offer, you know what the rest must be
like. But that’s the price you pay when your writers,
Cecilia Dopazo (a television actress who also plays a somewhat
minor character, Julia) and Juan Taratuto (in his theatrical
debut as director) are both first timers.
The best aspect of the film is the acting. And really it’s
only worth mentioning Diego Peretti as Javier. Although he
sounds like a pre-pubescent teenager and looks like a sickly
Al Pacino, he still gives a solid performance. Sometimes he’s
too good. What I mean is that at times I found him and his
desperation incredibly annoying and painful to watch. But overall,
he hits the right marks and is very believable in showing a
slightly overboard, prolonged reaction to a break-up.
There just weren’t enough jokes for a movie that is
supposed to be funny. All the attempts are hackneyed and pathetic.
They even use the tired answering machine routine that only
worked the first time I saw it a decade ago in “Swingers.” It
really just feels like the writers used this movie to work
out some of their own issues and for some reason decided to
commit it to celluloid. Trust me. It’s not
you; it’s the writers.
respond to jon@filmbrats.com
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