Lima 2015 Review: DOS BESOS, A Melodrama With Some Surprises
Dos Besos (Two Kisses in English) is, on the surface, a romantic melodrama which follows the expected blueprint. Looks can be deceiving, however; it stil has a few surprises up its sleeve.
Formerly titled Troika (and having nothing to do with Russians), this is the story of your everyday love triangle: Paola (Wendy Vásquez) a successful television producer, discovers that her poet/teacher husband Max (Javier Valdés) is cheating on her with a young aspiring actress named Nancy (Mayella Lloclla). It sounds simple enough, a basic recipe for a romantic drama.
Veteran screenwriter Augusto Cabada has other plans. By splitting the movie into three segments, he gives out three points of view, each one painting our central trio as both victims and victimizers. Cabada has fun playing around with the expected roles of the cheating husband, the cuckolded spouse and the hapless third wheel, showing that they're not as gender specific as one would expect.
These protagonists are not the easiest to warm up to, despite their set roles. Paola is a no-nonsense, ball-busting Type A personality; Max, rather than be the alpha male, is an insecure mess in the midst of a midlife crisis; and Nancy is so incredibly naive (or acting like it), it makes one want to smack some sense into her. Cabada has written a story that, despite its dramatic trappings, is not that romantic. In fact, this is a triangle based on need rather than love, and one could say that the trio deserve each other.
Lombardi wanted to make a drama, but with its cynical view of marriage and relationships, this is few rewrites away from becoming a full-on black comedy, especially during its ironic climax, which can garner some complicit laughs if one is in the right frame of mind.
Despite its generic title, which has little to do with what transpires, Dos Besos throws out enough twists to be worthwhile. Lombardi's no-frills directing style means that the true star of his movies are the screenplays, and Cabada has come up with an entertaining, low-key lark which would have been a lot better had it fully embraced its lurid, dark nature rather than try to be a straight romantic drama.
The Lima Film Festival goes from 7-15 August.
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