ALL TALK LITTLE ACTION

A Video Review of "Our Lady of the Assassins"

Copyright 2003 Glenn Walker

There has been a lot said about this movie. Definitely its reputation precedes but unfortunately sometimes it appears talk is just that, talk.

The first thing that strikes you when watching Our Lady of the Assassins is that it is on videotape rather than film. This is a risky endeavor for an independent film, especially a foreign language one. Perhaps backlash or an affection for The Blair Witch Project?

A homosexual writer returns to a dangerous part of Colombia where he grew up and takes up with a young gang member. The two take endless walks through the city while contemptfully commenting on how things used to be and how things are now.

Our Lady of the Assassins is endless talking while walking, while eating, while cuddling even while witnessing random acts of violence. It's like an hour of My Dinner with Andre interspersed with five second blips of Pulp Fiction.

The film gets tiresome after a while. The relationship between the man and the boy is well done but the rest is all talk talk. And anyone who found the violence shocking hasn't seen many movies in the last decade or two. Yawn.