Truman

When a film begins with a character sleeping for several minutes, it might also put the audience to sleep. When that character arrives to find a long-lost friend with terminal cancer, then movie audiences might expect to encounter two hours of upbeat gloom and some lessons about love and death, with a bouquet of redemption thrown in.

Instead is a curious and meandering four days, while Tomás (Javier Cámara) leads his best friend Julián (Ricardo Darín) on a wandering and obfuscating life in Barcelona, a life both wonderful and sad. A certain story of how friendship means more than most, as Tomás leads his friend to find a suitable replacement to house his beloved dog. It’s an almost documentary-like examination of the trying details of dying: one last hurrah, one last whisper, one last assertion of self. As the audience, we don’t need to admire or like the characters. They are flawed, stupid, lovely and loved.

Many films use death as a plot. Audiences wait for tears. Truman delivers no tears. And in this quiet, joyous film, we don’t want them. Or need them. But we have them, and that means more than all. (OA)

★★★★

BY OLGA AZAR