I _hated_ this movie, and every positive review I read about it makes me feel like I'm the child in the middle of _The Emperor's New Clothes_. There are so many aspects to film-making that go into producing great art, and if a film only hits 5% of those, it falls far below even the minimum standard. While I found LTA executed well technically (the ONLY reason I give it a "2" instead of a "1"), I found the tone self-indulgent and condescending. The characters and indigenous culture are so poorly sketched that even as someone intimately acquainted with Lima and its socio-economic complications, I found I had no empathy or feeling for what should have been a tragic tale. Very poorly written, the actors struggle to breathe life into this CORPSE of a script. I felt an abstract,near- hatred towards the ignorance and denial portrayed in the film, and doubly so towards Llosa for wasting 2hrs of my life AGAIN. I only dipped my toe into her suffocatingly shallow film-making because it was nominated for an Oscar. I sorely regret it and am appalled that LTA is being dolled-up as though it's on par w/ _Un Prophète_ or _El Secreto de Sus Ojos_. I'm an art-house, foreign film junkie, but _The Hangover_ was better than this tripe. At least I wasn't tricked into thinking it was good by rave reviews and awards.
Review of The Milk of Sorrow
