Imagining Argentina

2004

Imagining Argentina

Critics Consensus

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Imagining Argentina Photos

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Movie Info

In Buenos Aires during the Peron era, an Argentine playwright has a preternatural ability to see what will happen to people's loved ones -- many of whom are missing, or soon will be -- when he looks into their faces. Ultimately, he must turn this power inward, when his activist journalist wife disappears.

Rating:

R (or violence/torture and brief language.)
Genre:

Art House & International, Drama
Directed By:

Christopher Hampton
Written By:

Christopher Hampton
In Theaters:

Jun 11, 2004 wide
On Disc/Streaming:

Oct 11, 2005
Runtime:

107 minutes
Studio:

Arenas Entertainment

Watch it now

Cast

Irene Escolar
as Eurydice

Fernando Tielve
as Orfeo/Enrico

Hector Bordoni
as Pedro Augustin

Antonio Banderas
as Carlos Rueda

Emma Thompson
as Cecilia Rueda

Maria Canals-Barrera
as Esme Palomares

Ruben Blades
as Silvio Ayala

Leticia Dolera
as Teresa Rueda

Luis Antonio Ramos
as Policeman No. 2

Anton Lesser

Kuno Becker
as Gustavo Santos

John Wood
as Amos Sternberg

Claire Bloom
as Mrs. Sternberg

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Critical Consensus: Take Or Leave This "Lead,: An Odd "Number," "Benchwarmers"

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Critic Reviews for Imagining Argentina

All Critics (13) | Top Critics (7) | DVD (4)

It is not a good film; it is, moreover, a very earnest one, and our popular culture despises earnestness above almost anything else.

Dec 14, 2017 | Full Review…

Antonia Quirke
London Evening Standard
Top Critic
Despite its flaws, the film does the job in helping us imagine what that must be like for relatives and friends left behind.

Aug 20, 2004 | Rating: 3/4 | Full Review…

Ruthe Stein
San Francisco Chronicle
Top Critic
It's sad to see a film which, despite fine work in the various craft departments, fails to succeed on the most basic level.

Jun 29, 2004

David Stratton
Variety
Top Critic
The concept takes magical realism to a reductive, overtly literal level, trivializing the subject and the people the film tries so hard to memorialize.

Jun 10, 2004 | Rating: 1/5 | Full Review…

Kevin Crust
Los Angeles Times
Top Critic
Like Life Is Beautiful before it, Imagining Argentina juxtaposes horrific images of torture and humiliation against gooey optimism and thinks it's saying something profound about human resilience in the process.

Jun 10, 2004 | Full Review…

Scott Foundas
L.A. Weekly
Top Critic
The power of the film is its roots in official truths which are already melting away.

Apr 28, 2004 | Full Review…

James Christopher
Times (UK)
Top Critic
Gimmicky, pat, and just a tad too brutal at times, Imagining Argentina is a powerful statement rendered oddly ineffectual by a consistent desire to avoid controversy.

Nov 30, 2005 | Rating: 80/100 | Full Review…

Bill Gibron
DVD Verdict
Hampton's mixing of thriller and love story, cinematic coincidence and historical fact makes this film flawed but fascinating.

Jul 16, 2004 | Rating: 3/5 | Full Review…

Harry Guerin
RTÉ (Ireland)
...fidgety and incomplete, as though either poorly conceived or poorly re-edited after the fact.

Jun 10, 2004

Andy Klein
Los Angeles CityBeat
Hampton makes a moving job of it, with top-notch cinematography and heartfelt performances.

May 14, 2004 | Rating: 4/5

Angie Errigo
Empire Magazine
Honorable, but highly flawed, production.

Feb 17, 2004 | Full Review…

Lewis Beale
Film Journal International
It's maddening that the film is so weak, because there's a touching and seriously important story here that should have been told with power, honesty and humanity.

Jan 30, 2004 | Rating: 1.5/5 | Full Review…

Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall

View All Critic Reviews (13)

Audience Reviews for Imagining Argentina

Jun 22, 2011

In "Imagining Argentina," Cecilia Rueda(Emma Thompson), a journalist, is snatched off the street by armed men in Buenos Aires in 1976. Eight weeks later, her husband Carlos(Antonio Banderas), a theater director, is still at a loss as to her disappearance. While he does his best to take care of his teenaged daughter Teresa(Leticia Dolera) at home, at work things are falling apart as Enrico(Fernando Tielve), his leading man, wants to quit because his father has gone missing too. Carlos reassures him that things will be fine, as he also starts to sense the horrible truth behind his wife's disappearance. There are some things to admire about the otherwise unremarkable movie "Imagining Argentina," such as the performances from Emma Thompson and Antonio Banderas who underplays nicely but is still no Ricardo Darin. For the most part, writer-director Christopher Hampton gives the potentially intriguing material a pedestrian and heavy handed treatment. To start, the movie would have been better served if it had taken place after the military government left power when Carlos could have provided answers to long lingering mysteries with history at a safe distance. As it stands, what is he supposed to do except provide confirmation of the worst fears?(It just goes to prove that some things are best left to the imagination.) In fact, he only makes things worse. In the end, the individual stories matter little in the grand scheme of things, as the epitaph confirms that this was not an isolated situation. That may be so but also invoking the Holocaust is taking things a little too far.

Walter M Super Reviewer
Jan 23, 2010

It is, yes, well-intentioned but that doesn't compensate for its silly, heavy-handed execution full of artificiality, shallow dialogue and cartoonish villains - and Banderas' character acts so irrationally that I find it unbelievable that he is not killed before halfway through the story.

Carlos M Super Reviewer
Mar 14, 2008

At times this movie had me pinned. I couldn't turn back to the mad-magazine. But that's easy. Just take a timeless subject matter. Throw in some torture and raping of children, and you have anyones attention... But that psychic business. What the hell?!? At one point, Antonio almost threw a fortune cookie at the general!

a z Super Reviewer