Camino (2008) Reviews

• An excellent and thought-provoking film

  Argemaluco2011-01-25

  I generally dislike the movies which are inspired by true stories about people who suffered a cruel illness, because I consider them to be a vulgar exploitation of the suffering of others for the entertainment of the audience and economical benefit to the producing companies. However, I think the film Camino is an exception, because even though it deals with the fight against a devastating illness, it also has an unexpected narrative deepness and tacit commentaries about controversial subjects which will be undoubtedly be interpreted in different ways by every spectator. In Camino, the faith in God from the main character and her mother is so intense that it goes beyond any rational level, even provoking behaviours which some people could consider as inhuman. And that is where the biggest value from this movie resides on. By soberly presenting that facet from the religious extremism, it makes us think about the price some people pay for their faith. In fact, one of the most interesting aspects from Camino is what it does not say...in other words, I am talking about all those tacit commentaries and significant pauses which subtly express what we are thinking, with a null level of dramatic artifice or ideological sermons. In summary, the film does not "say" too much about the subject it deals with; it simply provides spaces for us to insert our own ideology, leaving the verdict about the characters and their attitudes to our judgement. And that is the reason why Camino is so difficult to evaluate on an objective level. Any reaction this movie can generate will be based on our point of view, and as well as some people will be moved by the touching devotion from a girl with a pure spirit and an extraordinary nobility, other ones will think that she suffered the most horrible child abuse from her mother, who washed her brain in order to unquestionably accept a series of superstitions which blind the reason and bring a fake sensation of order and purpose into a chaotic and unpredictable world. On a similar way, some people will perceive the Opus Dei members who are interested in the main character as an easy candidate for the holiness as villains; and other ones will think they are pious heroes who will channel the suffering from the main character as a spiritual weapon in their fight against evil. And I could keep giving more turns about the multiple interpretations Camino offers, but I will limit myself to say that I found its neutral posture on the subject it deals with to be fascinating, that I liked the performances very much (particularly Mariano Venancio's one), and that I was left emotionally devastated in various scenes. The only thing I can say against this movie is that there are a few scenes which could have been deleted, because they do not add too much to what we already know and they feel a bit dull. However, that minor fail does not avoid me from enthusiastically recommending Camino as an excellent film which makes us to think and even to examine the ideology we have about religion.

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• amazing

  krzysiektom2010-05-09

  It is such a superb film. Very sad and depressing, but an excellent film-making and a profound, intelligent script. I can guess that the modern Spanish society does not care much for its catholic Church, otherwise this film would not have received several Goya awards. Because principally the film is an anti-organized religion/organized Church manifesto. It dares to ask the fundamental question: if God exists and is good, why so many awful things and suffering happens to good people?? If the answer cannot be found or makes no sense, then it would mean that there is no God, really. At least not a personal, omnisicient God from the New Testament, that cares about what is going on in our world, knows and is everywhere. The film also portrays clergymen as hypocrytical vultures and convents as sects. The title character is played by a talented and charming girl in early teens who I am sure will grow to be a gorgeous and brilliant actress, while the passages between reality and her troubling dreams are brilliantly made.

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• Great acting in a real story turned upside down

  poesiaenobras-12008-10-18

  It is difficult to make an objective assessment of this movie taking into account the strong criticism of the Opus cult that underlies the movie. Camino is a fictionalized biography of Alexia Gonzalez Barros, a teeneger who died in 1985 after a short but painful illness. The director changes the main issue of the movie: the love that the real Alexia felt for Jesus is turned into a love for a real kid called Jesus (a common name in Spain). Is that mockery? It's difficult to say. Fesser transforms the love for a heavenly Jesus for a down-to-earth love for a kid. Nobody in the movie notices this except the father. I can understand the family didn't like the idea and, if as the director says, this is not a movie based in her story, to say at the beginning that the movie is based in real facts and to dedicate the movie to Alexia is misleading and, I fear, marketing oriented. Having said that, if you watch the film as it is, forgetting the facts that could support part of the movie, you will probably like it. Camino, the main character, is extremely well played and you cannot feel but strong sympathy for her. The narrative discourse of the movie, however, it is sometimes too affected by the continuous dreams of the girl, that at time are almost ridiculous in their cinematography. On the other hand, the movie is a good portrait of how the Opus works. Its sexism, its demand for obedience above all, its cult and sect ways of working at taking people from their families, that is portrayed honestly. The Opus characters, however, are mostly unidimensional, which makes them less believable. All in all, a good movie difficult to forget, not a masterpiece, with very good acting, that would have been better without marketing allusions to a real character that has little to do with the portrayed one. It is a film about love, a religious love that the director and writer makes terrestial.

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• A wonderful film and a wonderful child

  lemmycaution692008-10-19

  Camino is the most intense film I've seen this year. I understand that Opus Dei doesn't like this film. I suppose that the Nazi Party doesn't like "Schindler's List", or the stalinists, or the talibanics, or extreme groups don't like films about them. I mention "Schindler's List", because I feel after Camino like after "Schindler's". Out of the theater, I was knocked by the film, I didn't know what's hour, what to do. I was still hooked on the film, and I didn't stop thinking about its characters, its argument, its pictures. Death and sickness and intolerance and dark side of life are inside "Camino", but above all Love and Hope and bright side of life. Sometimes the film is close to horror films (not too close), but another times it has got the joy of a musical (without songs, thank's god). Also, I was born in 1969, and the film presents visual aspects of my mediterranean catholic education. The nuns'school, the typical mass songs, the strict separation between men and women, the old fanatic priests, the dominant mothers and the silent but lover fathers... I enjoy seeing all those pictures of my sentimental education on a screen, and I fear that one of these things exists in present times... And speaking about catholic values and laicism values, my wife is completely agnostic and she says that Freedom in in the film. I'm Catholic believer, and I think that God is in the film. The Church is not only Opus Dei, and the rest of mankind has the right to talk and think about Alexia, the child who inspired the film. If Opus Dei opens a public campaign about Alexia, even with a Youtube Channel, Alexia is now a public figure. Opus Dei cannot order a complete silence for another point of view about this case. But now, after Camino, I love Alexia much more then before.

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• Portrait of a taliban

  josean_xx2008-11-20

  Fesser draws what must be the most precise and accurate portrait of the behavior and social system of the members of one of the most dangerous among Catholic sect:The Opus Dei. It's a faithful, understated portrait, one that doesn't resort to easy caricaturization, only delivers the facts in a honest way. What comes out however is terrifying: A destructive sect manipulates and destroys the lives of all those that come in contact with them. For audiences that are not familiar with the workings of this religious sect, it may be revealing. Some of its scenes will stay firmly etched in those that watch them: The way the elder sister is manipulated into submission, alienated from family and reduced to a emotionless figure robbed of her freedom, self esteem and joy, the way the mother -the taliban- denies her husband and daughters any happy moments, torturing them with her self imposed beliefs and prohibitions, reducing them to puppets manipulated by her monstrous beliefs, or the scene when Camino, the dying child asks her sane sister, Nuria, who has just told her how envious she is of her because she will be going to heaven soon, whether she wants her to ask for Nuria's prompt death in her prayers. The film loses part of it's strenght when the director decides to film the dreams of the main character, colorful fantasies that do not match the mood and energy of the main plot. Tech work is superb, specially lensing, by Alex Catalán. Actors do a superb job at interpreting those deranged people. In all a powerful movie with some very minor flaws.

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