Rosarigasinos

Rosarigasinos (2001)

This latest release from Synapse is a very nifty little movie about a couple of criminals that get out of jail after serving 30 years in prison. Their names are Castor and Tito. The story of why they were in jail slowly unfolds as we watch them go looking for the money that they stole before going to prison (for an unrelated murder). When they go to get the money it is missing from it’s hiding spot. Tito is convinced that Castor must have told someone where it was and blames him. This forces the pair to commit another crime to get the money to skip town on, but Castor is caught. To make things worse Tito finds out that he is responsible for the money being gone and now has to spring Castor from jail.

This was a nice change of pace from the normal genre movies that I watch most of the time. The story takes it’s time unfolding as we get to know the characters and what makes them tick. The friendship between Castor and Tito becomes obvious as the movie goes along, especially after Tito realizes what happened. That twist there where he realizes who he needs to care about and who is friend really is gives the movie much of it’s heart. Same thing goes for Castor’s reaction after Tito is shot during their getaway from the cops. That makes what happens later on have more impact and why one characters attempt to get even makes sense. Trying to keep things vague, but trust me it makes sense after you have seen the movie. Bottom line here this is a great movie with an excellent story to tell. Of course even the best story will only go as far as it’s cast can take it. Here Federico Luppi does a great job in his role as Tito, the smoother of the two criminals and the ladies man. Ulises Dumont is also perfectly cast as Castor, who is kind of the sidekick of Tito. The chemistry between these two actors and their quality of their performances is the heart and soul of the movie.

From a technical point of view this is a reasonably well-made movie. The camera work is pretty good and the lighting fine for most scenes. The sound is a bit rough in a couple of scenes, but the movie is subtitled so that isn’t a big deal. There isn’t really much on screen violence or special effects. You do get to watch the characters get beat up as the movie goes on, and that is taken care of nicely with some makeup. But other than that this movie really doesn’t call for anything else.

Synapse puts out some really cool foreign titles and I count Rosarigasinos among them. This isn’t a violent, bloody, or over the top action flick. It is just a neat story about a couple of old men that get out of prison to a much different world than the one they left, and how they deal with it. I really enjoyed it and recommend the movie to anyone looking for a change of pace.

3 out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer