Title: The 33
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Director: Patricia Riggen
Starring: Antonio Banderas, Rodrigo Santoro, Lou Diamond Philips
Runtime: 2 hr 7 mins

What It Is: This film tells the tale of the 33 Chilean miners who were trapped in the San Jose mine. These men are trapped without any real escape plan and only about 3 days worth of food to last them any number of days. With dwindling resources and no way to communicate these miners may just be in trouble. It will be up to the Chilean government to pull resources together and try to rescue these helpless men.

What We Think: Can a movie be accidently racist? If so, then this is a prime example. Here we have a country, in Chile, that is in South America. This region is known for it’s Spanish-speaking inhabitants. So can someone tell me why Juliette Binoche (who is French), Bob Gunton (whose American) and Gabriel Byrne (whose Irish) are in this film…as Chileans no doubt. There’s a point where there “accents” become comical. When you couple that with a manipulative script you get a very disappointing piece altogether. Often the actors in the film who are Hispanic (of which only two leads are in Santoro and Banderas) are overacting the hell out of the soft material.

Our Grade: D, There was so much potential that’s absolutely squandered here. This is a story that deserves a more subtle hand in the direction, and perhaps a more focused approach. It isn’t as if Patricia Riggen hasn’t directed before her 2007 film Under the Same Moon was just fine. That too had the normally wonderful Kate Del Castillo in it. I cannot recommend this film. There just isn’t really anything in it that stand out. As I mentioned earlier let’s not even discuss the whole matter of the racial insensitivity of having so many Caucasians in a movie that is supposed to feature “Chileans”.