Search - Como Voy a Olvidarte (How Can I Forget You) on DVD

Formidable

Critical Reader | 01/13/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The viewers should not be misled by what appears to be a movie with a corny plot: a love story between the wealthy, white daughter of a prominent Ecuadorian politician-entrepreneur and a popular mestizo singer from the Andean highlands. This movie pries open the nature of Latin American politics and culture by working through their fault lines. The profound regional, racial, class, cultural rifts that tear Latin American societies apart surface in the movie at a relentless pace, for it is also about adventure. The politician, who turns out to have a private army of goons to break strikes and a few political backs, becomes the president of Ecuador. But he has committed a crime and his daughter witnessed it. Suddenly, confronted by the nature of her father's power, she flees to the highlands. In the process, she finds love, but more importantly a country she never imagined existed. Ultimately, civic responsibility and love triumphs over family, leading only to self-immolation and death. This is an angry, passionate, yet funny movie with a tinge of cynicism in its ending. Well done!"

GREAT FILM

Esteban Mondragon | Washington, DC | 04/14/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I loved this film. It is funny, extremely funny. What was especially fascinating was that one exciting thing led to another even more exciting. A young woman finds out her father, the typical Latin American presidential candidate, is a criminal. (You even get to see a couple of bogus political tv ads...) She runs away and meets this fat journalist, a kind of Moliere's "ingenu", with whom she fights, makes up, disguises as an old lady (you've got to see that!) and meets a hoarse singer. Then come a few beatings and shootings (they are so much fun it's hard to believe it unless you see it for yourself). I can't tell you the rest, but in the middle of all this, you get to see beautiful landscapes and quaint little cities, listen to beautiful music and be moved by a gathering of 5,000 sentimental extras. It's really impressive!"

How can I forget this movie?

Daniel J. McGill | 03/01/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I must concede to the critic who gave this movie two stars that, yes, the translation is very poor, and much of the production would fall far short of what viewers in the United States are accustomed to. That said, take away one star, because the movie in spite of all these issues moved me quite profoundly. In the United States we are so used to the fluidity of our society that we do not appreciate the parts of the world where such social fluidity is much, much more restricted. If one is unfamiliar with the huge social divisions in many Latin American countries, much of the context of this movie will be lost. Sadly, if one does not know Spanish, many of the beautiful lines that are spoken between the characters will also be lost, since the translators only summarize what was spoken.

I can see why this movie was so popular in Ecuador where it brings to the screen a reality that Hollywood can never show because its cliches and metaphors have no meaning here. I also felt through this movie the sadness of lands that do not enjoy our freedoms, our traditions of rule by law, our opportunities for education and material success.

I must disagree with the reviewer who gave it two stars when he dismissed this as predictable or says that the characters are not well developed. Yes, the transitions are quite weak and I found that I had to rely upon my imagination for what might have been portrayed if this had been a high budget movie from the United States. But it was not a high budget movie from the United States or Europe or anywhere else with an affluent movie business. Accepting this, it reveals a world completely outside our First World tedium of predictable movie plots (rendered over and over with in sequel franchises and genre monopolies) as well as outside our predictable cityscapes with the same movies, stores and restaurants showing "everywhere."

An upper-class and affluent young woman who seems like she could be from the United States leads us on a run through the beauty and squalor of an underprivileged world, first showing us its strangeness and then revealing the strangeness of her own upper-class world where politicians, including her father, murder dissidents and the rule of law is very selective in its application.

In fact, she is like us, naive about about the world hidden from our view. But she is also a true heroine confronting dangers more real than all our high budget, special effects movies can ever confront, precisely because they are high budget and hiding behind special effects. The movie's title song which means, "How can I ever forget you?" answers this question with the haunting line, "you are not just my love, you are my life..." Yes, I think so. This movie failed completely to massage my expectations of trite, forgettable plots and "unbelievable special effects" (unbelievable indeed.) But it did show another world, so exotic, but so profoundly part of my own life, that like a revelation it is unforgettable."