The Key Reason Why in the Heart ((Las razones del corazon))

A Mil Nubes Cine, Wanda Vision, Fidecine production, while using participation of TVE. (Worldwide sales: Wanda Vision, Madrid.) Produced by Roberto Fiesco, Jose Maria Morales. Executive producer, Hugo Espinosa. Directed by Arturo Ripstein. Script, Paz Alicia Garciadiego.With: Arcelia Ramirez, Vladimir Cruz, Plutarco Haza, Patricia Reyes Spindola, Alejandro Suarez, Pilar Padilla, Paola Arroyo, Carlos Chavez, Eligio Melendez, Marta Aura.An excessively literary script combined having a wearying theatricality scar Arturo Ripstein's loose black-and-white-colored adaptation of "Madame Bovary," christened "The Key Reason Why in the Heart." The soapy title fits the helmer's attempted deconstruction in the meller form, climax not apparent just what the tinkering adds either to Flaubert or perhaps the film itself, devoted to some Mexican housewife getting a bland husband plus an uncontrollable desire for an unsympathetic lover. Ripstein's repetition will be the primary reason "Reasons" will bounce across the fest circuit. The opening owes more than just a little to Jean Cocteau's "La Voix humaine," as Emilia (Arcelia Ramirez) engages virtually in the monologue within her downmarket apartment. She grasps at her reflection inside the mirror, a gesture of frustration that sets the deliberately theatrical tone for your remaining two several hours. Emilia features a regular rendezvous inside an upstairs garret with Cuban sax player Nicolas (Vladimir Cruz) and is a lot more dedicated to her obsessive requirement of her lover compared to her neglected 10-year-old daughter Isabel (Paola Arroyo), or her dull, hard-working husband, Javier (Plutarco Haza). She increases to arrange on her behalf usual assignation, literally licking the sheets before his arrival in one of several over-the-top flourishes that find it hard to reconstitute melodrama's excesses yet fail to be significant inside a postmodern way. Nicolas can't cope with her inadequacy and dumps her, saying, "I would be an asshole but I'm not a real bastard" (probably the road increases results within the the spanish language language). Emilia falls in to a volitile types of envy and self-destruction, giving herself to sleazy upstairs neighbor Jasper (Alejandro Suarez), bemoaning fate when creditors take her furniture, and crying over her failure to leave her passions. Javier has resigned themselves to his station, but Emilia is incompetent at reducing her impossible demands on existence. Ripstein has formerly carried out with staginess ("The Virgin of Lust") and black-and-white-colored ("The Ruination of Males"), and also the impressive career is stuffed with interesting adaptations, but "Reasons" too often feels as if empty experimentation. "A person's heart has reasons that reason cannot know," mentioned Blaise Pascal, reported at first, the film states not new concerning the possible lack of ability of allegedly intelligent people to describe or justify giving their prefer to an clearly unacceptable object of affection. Ripstein's frequent scripter (and wife) Paz Alicia Garciadiego uses language to talk about a hothouse atmosphere of examined literacy whose prose styling pays homage for the pic's source material, but never comprises a scenario for your self-conscious artifice. When Emilia yells at her daughter, "Go elsewhere along with your drama," auds will probably be tempted to direct the identical exclamation within the filmmakers. The marriage character is Ruti, the structure concierge, who functions as witness and stable ur-pressure, wonderfully fleshed by helping cover their a magnetic Patricia Reyes Spindola. Alejandro Cantu's lensing is pleasingly textured, and also the camera describes the limited spaces in interesting ways. Music, specially the wails of Nicolas' saxophone, adds another self-referential layer having its film-noir moodiness.Camera (B&W), Alejandro Cantu editor, Alejandro Ripstein music, David Mansfield production designer, Sandra Cabriada costume designer, Laura Garcia p la Mora appear (Dolby Digital, THX), Armando Narvaez, Omar Juarez. Examined at San Sebastian Film Festival (competing), Sept. 23, 2011. (Also in Abu Dhabi Film Festival -- competing. Running time: 125 MIN. Contact the number newsroom at news@variety.com