"I love the conviction of the loser; only the loser has any"
– Charles Bukowski,
Notes of a Dirty Old Man
When a decomposing corpse is found impaled on a stake down on his luck journalist Victor Silanpa – not only hard-drinking, chain-smoking and divorced but also troubled with haemorroids for good measure – is called in by Colonel Moya to investigate.
In exchange for this exclusive – though there's also an element of an offer you can't refuse, you suspect – he's also to write a speech for the Colonel's dieters anonymous meeting.
Aided by Estupiñán, a clerk who may be the brother of the dead man and Quica, a suspiciously young prostitute from the Bar Lolita, Victor soon uncovers a web of intrigue concerning the title deeds to a piece of prime real estate…
Based on the best-selling 1997 novel of the same name by Columbian author Santiago Gamboa, Perder es cuestión de método ("To Lose is a question of method" or "The Art of Losing") uses the format of the detective thriller to attack a society where corruption is a sad fact of everyday life and the only difference between politicians and gangsters their preferred facades and strategies.
At times reminiscent of a cross between Chinatown and The Threepenny Opera , a strong seam of black humour runs through the film and, for better or worse, renders its unpalatable truths more bearable, as when Victor and Quica's infiltratation of a nudist colony is juxtaposed with Quica's tearful relating of how her brother was taken away by the hombres armados one night, never to return.
Slickly orchestrated by director Sergio Cabrera with good performances, particuarly from Daniel Giménez Cacho – the Spanish actor perhaps most familiar from his role as the priest in Almodovar's Bad Education – and Martina Garcia, who on this showing may well be the hottest thing to come out of Spanish-language TV soaps since Salma Hayek, this is worth a look.
Copyright © K H Brown 2002-2005
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