Jauja, 2014 - ★★½

Jauja, 2014 - ★★½
REVIEWED

..:: Machismovision - Film #29 ::..

“She was like a carnivorous plant that grows at night” - Gunnar (Viggo Mortensen)

Aimed squarely at the arthouse set, its as far removed from a conventional western as I've slipped into my Machismovision list. Jauja follows a Danish gentleman Gunnar whose begrudgingly tasked with helping colonialising Argentina (at least I think that was his original agenda). Only his 15 year old daughter disappears with a soldier and leaves him no choice but to search the unforgiving land, that he never wanted be in from the outset.

Holy parachronism, batman! was that a tv I heard? I came for the depth of Tarkovsky, surrealism of Jodorowsky or at least a serviceable Mortensen gunslinger, but I got nothing of the sort. Its one lethargic paced movie with little to pick at. The film essentially sets up Viggo Mortensen's character early on with his purpose, then spends the bulk of its remaining non-linear/improvised duration with him trekking around the beautiful Tierra Del Fuego region. Maybe I missed something and I'm sure (*cough* pseudo) intellectuals will tell you otherwise, but there seemed a severe lack of depth or greater purpose, outside of its lovely Terrence Malick like cinematography. I've tried reading reviews to see if I could find what I missed but none do, instead 50% just liken it to famed directors or films, the other 50% say its boring... sadly I've gotta side with the later.


IMDB Page
Originally taken from Letterboxd

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