Bickering and bouts of nostalgia feature on lively road trip. Photo / Supplied
Bickering and bouts of nostalgia feature on lively road trip. Photo / Supplied
This Argentinian-Spanish film may be about the reunion of a tango partnership, and it may have “dance” in the title but a consumer warning: It contains very little in the way of fancy footwork. And if that Argentine ballroom style is meant to evoke feelings of passion and romance, well,best not get your hopes up there, either.
But it is still a charmer – a bittersweet comedy about late-life regrets as well as a scenic road movie that takes us from Buenos Aires 1000km west to the foothills of the Andes. And it comes with the best vehicular casting of a Kombi van since Little Miss Sunshine.
That trek begins after Carlos (Darío Grandinetti) arrives home to Argentina from Spain, where he and his comb-over are apparently big in showbiz. He’s there for the funeral of Marga (Mercedes Morán), his estranged partner from when they were a star tango dancing couple many years before.
But she’s not dead (not a spoiler). It’s all a ruse so she and their duo’s old manager/ bandoneon player, Pichu, can take Carlos cross-country to meet the son he didn’t know he’d had with Marga and who she gave up for adoption soon after his birth.
Carlos copes with the surprises rather well, all things considered, and there are more to come as the Kombi rattles westward and the trio swing from bickering to bouts of nostalgia for the good old days.
The contrivances of director Marina Seresesky’s screenplay, and some of the encounters with the locals along the way, can make this feel like it’s occasionally got bored with the main characters. And the soundtrack, also defiantly tango-free, is mostly a curiously cartoon-ish jazz punctuation to the various capers. Thankfully, Grandinetti and Morán, both veterans of the Argentinean screen, make their old flames spark together neatly. They may be in a film that actually fails to show it takes two to tango, but they lead us on a merry dance, nevertheless.
Rating out of 5: ★★★
Let The Dance Begin, directed by Marina Seresesky, is in cinemas now.
