Martin (Hache)

As the previous reviews have stated, the movie is mainly about the relationship between a father and a son, but what will really blow you away is the dialogue, carried mostly by the Dante (Eusebio Poncella) character, it might be shocking that the sane person in this movie is the gay "libertine" drug user, but that's part of the (hidden?) charm and message Aristarain tries to transmit. Unfortunately though, non-spanish speaking viewers will have to cope with the usual translation problems that unfortunately take away at least 1/3 of the dialogue and half of the richness of the movie in part due to the fast pace the interactions have which I guess made them cut a lot of dialogue and resume some. But all in all, this is a great movie that you should not miss, performances are brilliant, specially Eusebio Poncella as Dante and Cecilia Roth as Alicia.

Used to own this movie in VHS and had to get it in DVD...one of my favorite movies of all times. Very intelligent dialogues and great acting from everyone in the crew.

I loved this movie and the acting , the young guy has some more years to learn, but the other three main characters were amazing!

Set in Buenos Aires and Madrid, this film has excellent character development. It is a very intelligent script about life and in particular about love, manhood, and a father and son's relationship.

Unpleasant movie about unpleasant people. An absent father tries to reconnect with his teenage son who has almost died of a drug overdose. Good story. Good actors. Well-made movie. But I have no interest in a bunch of people behaving irresponsibly. Teenagers behaving badly are not uncommon, and are even quite sad, as in this film. Adults (or supposed adults) behaving badly are just plain irritating, and that's what this movie is filled with. The closest thing to a sympathetic character is the father, and even he doesn't have his act together. But then you have his druggie girl friend who visits the father and son, kindly bringing some coke along to share with them. And then we have his hedonistic best friend who agrees to look after the son while papa is away. Unfortunately best friend forgets his promise to dad and decides to give the kid (who almost died of an overdose, remember) some cocaine. I don't expect sweetness and light in every movie I see, nor do I want it. But a film needs characters the viewer can be interested in. Good, bad, whatever, but at least make them interesting. I had no interest in any of these losers. I have to admit I could only tolerate these people for about an hour. Maybe things got better during the second half. I hope so. But I wasn't about to stick around and see.

Adolfo Aristarain is one of those rare filmmakers who defines his own world in cinema by writing and directing terrific stories with brilliant dialogue and using a familiar cadre of actors who give the finished product an ensemble effort. He is one of Argentina's finest artists and couples frequently with writer Kathy Saavedra (Roma, Un lugar en el mundo, Lugares communes, Martín (Hache), etc) and elects to use the extraordinary actors from Argentina such as Federico Luppi. Cecilia Roth, Juan Diego Botta and Eusebio Poncela. The results are stunning motion pictures that while addressing the intellect of the audience never fail to entertain as well. 'Martín (Hache)' is just such a film. With a challenging and wise script and a cadre of fine actors in every role Aristarain has created a poignant, philosophical and superlative character study about people and their need for relating in the world as we have altered it today. Martín (the brilliant Federico Luppi) is a wealthy writer who left his family in Buenos Aires five years ago to live and work in Madrid. He has a nineteen year old son Hache (Juan Diego Botta) - Hache is the Spanish pronunciation for the alphabet letter 'J' and since the son's name is Martin J. he elects to be called J or Hache - who is a restless, foundationless teenager who refuses to go to school preferring to simply play his electric guitar and run with the drug crowd. His mother has remarried and has a new baby and Hache is feeling like a third wheel. He accidentally overdoses on alcohol and drugs during a performance, collapses, and his mother notifies Martín that Hache has attempted suicide to induce Martín to return to Buenos Aires and take back his son Hache. Hache of course recovers and his mother insists that Hache is in the way and that he must go to Madrid to live with Martín: Martín begrudgingly agrees. In Madrid, Martín has been living the life of a recluse whose only contacts are his squeeze Alicia (Cecilia Roth, an actress of limitless talent), who escapes her life by an addiction to coke but loves Martín, and his best friend the bisexual actor Dante (Eusebio Poncela) who is an Epicurean living all aspects of life for the pleasures he finds. Once Hache has moved in with his distant, cold, sullen father he falls under the influence of Alicia and Dante who adore him and attempt to show him a life of sunshine in Madrid while Martín sequesters himself in his writing. How this unlikely quartet interacts, bouncing the Apollonian against the Dionysian poles of living forms the basis for the story. Hache grows to understand the spectrum of worldviews, a tragedy occurs, and the ongoing silent duel between the father and the son comes to a touching resolution. Hearing and watching this quartet of brilliant actors is not unlike attending a performance of a fine string quartet. Aristarain keeps the long film (two hours +) moving in such a beautifully liquid flow that the story seems to take moments. But the moments are all treasures, the result of the ensemble of writing, directing, and acting. 'Martín (Hache)' is simply a brilliant film. In Spanish with English subtitles. Grady Harp, November 06

I initally found this difficult to get involved in but I hung in there and found it to be quite worthwhile to watch. It pulls no punches and shows people and their relationships with each other warts and all.We are all human and all fallible and everyone struggles with what they are unsure of. Made me think. I like that. If you give it a go, hang in there if you are tempted not to.

“Hay que follarse a las mentes” (muchos años después descubro a qué película samplearon en una canción de Violadores Del Verso). Llevaba tiempo esperando esta película en formato físico Blu-Ray ya que me la recomendaron y yo ya había visto la otra película de Juan Diego Botto de joven, la de “Historias del Kronen” que también me gustó mucho y había leído también el libro, así que quería completar con esta otra película de dicho actor en su juventud. Por cierto, para aclarar las dudas está en Español de España (no español latino, salvo el Argentino natural de los actores claro) y con subtítulos en Inglés (ya que veo quien dice que no está subtitulada y eso es falso porque si lo está). Lo dicho, película muy recomendada para el desarrollo de cualquier persona y para hacernos ver todo lo que nos rodea y hacernos pensar… Actuaciones muy buenas por parte de todos, edición física ideal para los verdaderos amantes del cine en formato físico.

Hallo die CD war mir bekannt super ruhige Musik darum habe ich sie bestellt. Das einzige was nicht so gut war, war die lange Lieferzeit.

Terapeútica, una película con personajes muy delineados que muestra no sólo la relación padres hijos sino otras relaciones igualmente importantes.

10/10 movie. Well developed story and characters with incredibly rich/smart dialogue. The DVD is very granny even for DVD standards (4:3 ratio) and the obnoxious english subtitles are recorded with the movie (cannot be unselected).

Pelicula con dialogos, temas y argumento demoledores. Ademas de contar con actores de la talla de Luppi, Botto haciendo interpretaciones excelentes. La sensacion que me produjo es sentirme totalmente absorbido por la pelicula y de disfrute total.