{"id":991,"date":"2013-04-17T14:52:07","date_gmt":"2013-04-17T18:52:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/students.com.miami.edu\/~reviewing\/?page_id=991"},"modified":"2013-04-17T14:52:07","modified_gmt":"2013-04-17T18:52:07","slug":"bless-me-ultima-fails-to-impress","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/students.com.miami.edu\/reviewing\/?page_id=991","title":{"rendered":"‘Bless Me, Ultima’ fails to impress"},"content":{"rendered":"

Posted April 17, 2013<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

By KEVIN SANDS<\/p>\n

“Bless Me, Ulitma” is certainly a visually beautiful film. From the first shot, the New Mexican countryside is the star of this movie. The cinematography of this film is filled with the kind of slow, poignant panning shots that make nature documentaries like \u201cBlue Planet\u201d so special.<\/p>\n

That being said, the film\u2019s prettiness is one of the few positives “Bless Me, Ultima” has going for it.<\/p>\n

The film, an adaption of Rodolfo Anayo\u2019s award-winning 1972 novel of the same name, stars Luke Ganalon as Antonio, a 7 year-old boy living in World War II-era New Mexico. When Ultima (Miriam Colon), an aging mystic, comes to live with Antonio\u2019s family, Antonio learns to live with the land and to respect the ancient native magic that Ulitma uses to heal people.<\/p>\n

The plot and characterization are among the film\u2019s most serious drawbacks. When viewing “Bless Me, Ultima,” it\u2019s clear that there are lessons the viewer is supposed to get out of it\u2014this movie is about more than just a boy in New Mexico.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the message\u00a0doesn’t\u00a0exactly stick, as far too many parts of the plot seem too clich\u00e9d to watch with a straight face.<\/p>\n

The characters don\u2019t seem particularly deep. Rather, they reflect common stock characters\u2014the wise native woman in touch with the spirit of the land, the young boy who knows the emotional depth of the world and has overwrought pensive narration to prove it, the overly vindictive priest, the drunkard with the heart of gold (named, of all things, \u201cNarciso\u201d), and, of course, the eyepatch-wearing, cartoonish\u00a0villain.<\/p>\n

For good measure, the film\u2019s corny message is also hammered in with symbolism so obvious that it makes the viewer feel babied. For example, the first time the film shows an owl staring straight into the camera, it\u2019s groan-worthy: everyone knows that this is going to show up in increasingly forced ways throughout the movie. The more the owl appears, the more it might as well be carrying a red, neon sign that flashes, \u201cI\u2019m a symbol.\u201d Symbolism like this also keeps reappearing in the dialogue, which can be wooden at times.<\/p>\n

Of course, “Bless Me, Ultima” isn\u2019t complete trash. Both the cinematography and the music selections, which were southwestern enough to set the scene without screaming \u201cYee-Haw,\u201d were pretty. And the costume design felt accurate for both the time period and the family\u2019s socio-economic status.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s also clear that this could have been a far better movie. Some of the film\u2019s scenes, like when Antonio runs out of his first grade class in shame because he brought a burrito rather than a sandwich, are better than whatever scenes reinforce the message the film is shoving down the viewer\u2019s throat. If director Carl Franklin had taken scenes like that and expanded upon them, what would be left is a far better coming-of-age story focusing more on Antiono and his circumstances.<\/p>\n

By the end of “Bless Me, Ultima,” there might have been an important lesson to learn. But whatever it was, it\u00a0didn’t\u00a0stick much due to hackneyed characterization and an incredibly predictable ending.<\/p>\n