Rent Even the Rain (2010)

Even the Rain (aka También La Lluvia) review by Alyse Garner - Cinema Paradiso

A film about film making Even the Rain tells the story of a cast and crew intent on making a movie about Columbus and his discovery and subsequent exploration of the Americas. Whilst making their movie however the film makers inadvertently begin to reflect Columbus in an unexpected fashion; by following in the abuse and exploitation of the native Indians they encounter in their journey.

The movie raises issues of poverty and civil rights in an area frequently abused by richer Western countries and the story is supposedly based on the real fight by locals in Cochabamba against wealthy water company, Bechtel Corp, who attempted to buy land rights in the area and charge the locals for water from their own wells.

Although a perfectly reasonable movie Even the Rain fails to project anything new or particularly gripping whilst the balance between the story of the locals and the film makers wears a little thin. Beyond this the performances were fairly good, notably that of Gael Garcia Bernal, whose portrayal of a rather weak and sallow character left me with very little love for him.

The movie portrays a sympathetic tone to the impoverished locals, and justifiably of course, but this melodrama seeps into the characters of the cast and crew turning their reactions into little more than stories of the hard hearted wealthy being won over by the plucky locals.