That Movie Site :: Rolling Family (2004)

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ROLLING FAMILY

Reviewed by Heather Picker

Emilia, the octogenarian matriarch of a Buenos Aires family, sees a young relative's wedding in Misiones as an opportunity to finally gather her daughters, son-in-laws and grandchildren all in one place; reluctantly, they pile into a decrepit '58 Viking, squabbling, breaking down, and pairing up along the way in Rolling Family, a folksy Argentinean take on that most anguished of undertakings – the family road trip.

Crammed into the camper are Emilia's middle-aged daughters Marta (Liliana Capurro) and Claudia (Ruth Dobel), who share a basic sisterly closeness and poor communication skills; their husbands Oscar and Ernesto (Bernardo Forteza and Carlos Resta), who do not get along; Oscar's daughter Paola (Laura Glave), who may or may not devote more time to her dreadlocks than her baby by drug-addled Claudio (Federico Esquerro); and Marta and Claudia's children Gustavo (Raul Viñona), Matias (Nicolás López) and Yanina (Marianela Pedano), with Yanina's best friend Nadia (Leila Gomez) thrown in for good measure. Got all of that? Because it took me about 30 minutes to figure it out.

Now, the drama. (And you knew it was coming because no family, not even the Brady Bunch, could trek across Argentina without resorting to name-calling and fisticuffs. My own family routinely had trouble making it from Creve Coeur to Chesterfield without petty bickering threatening to escalate into a no-holds-barred Ultimate Fighting match between my siblings.) Ernesto still carries a torch for ex-lover Marta, and even the presence of his wife and her husband just a few feet away will not stop him from making advances on her. Paola's marriage is in trouble, which we suspect is its usual state, and Oscar would love nothing more than to pummel his son-in-law. Gustavo and Yanina have a bit of a George Michael/Maebe thing going on, but Gustavo also has his eye on Nadia. And because these dynamics don't make for enough discomfort, Claudia has a dental emergency and first-grader Matias sneaks his own friend onto the bus, resulting in a wet dog smell that might have lingered longer than the stench of slovenly Oscar's sweat-soaked shirts.

Rolling Family moves rather leisurely for a film of only 95 minutes and contains copious close-ups of sweaty brows as everyone suffers in cramped quarters. Such pacing can be rewarding when it reveals character development, but there is little to be found here. Rolling Family isn't heavy and passionate like Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train, Patrice Chéreau's film about a group of friends and family traveling by train to a funeral, or Sundance-ready like Little Miss Sunshine. It is never unpleasant, to damn it with faint praise, and won't strip you of your will to live like RV, but that won't stop you from checking your watch after 40 minutes.

Writer-director Pablo Trapero, with his stripped down production and a proficient cast mostly comprised of non-actors, has created a film that feels almost documentary-like about a subject most people are all too familiar with. Trapero pondered the story for nearly a decade before finally filming it, and since it's his own personal nostalgia project, it is fitting he chose his own grandmother, Graciana Chironi, for the role of Emilia. Chironi's background as an actress consists entirely of appearing in her grandson's films, and when the movie is at its best – when Emilia is alone at home, feeding chickens, and when she is reunited with her family in Misiones – it is a tender but imperfect tribute to Chironi and grandmas everywhere.

About the DVD: Released this week by Palm Pictures, the DVD has an anamorphic widescreen transfer and includes the Argentinean theatrical trailer, the US theatrical trailer, previews, and weblinks. The main supplementary draw is a 20-minute making-of featurette with director Trapero, who discusses his fascination with casting family and friends in his movies and the challenges of making Rolling Family on the road (yes, they shot on real roads with real traffic complicating their work). There is also an interesting look at the film's Viking set, which required an exhaustively constructed addition to accommodate Trapero's production crew. Graciana Chironi is interviewed in the featurette, and photos from Trapero's childhood give you an indication of his emotional investment in the film.

Written and Directed by Pablo Trapero. Starring Graciana Chironi, Liliana Capurro, Bernardo Forteza, Raul Viñona, and Marianela Pedano. 2004, 103 min., Not Rated.

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