Carol’s Journey, pretentiously billed as “A Film By Imanol Urbie” (honestly, are we supposed to know who this guy is) is a surprisingly cold, unimaginative, dull film about a little girl from New York who joins her mother on a trip to Spain at the height of that nation’s Civil War. Though made in 2002, I could have been convinced that Urbie sat down to watch Pan’s Labyrinth, then determined he should make another film. What could it be about? Charming little girl in Spain? Check. Period Piece set in the Civil War? Check. Dysfunctional family? Check. Beautiful cinematography, mind-blowing originality and inventiveness, and devastating ending? Whoops!
In all fairness, four years separate the two productions, but that doesn’t make the comparison unhealthy. Pan’s is a film that took the troubles of a girl much similar to Carol and placed them in an exciting, surprising world. Carol’s Journey is a clichéd mess without a head or a heart, an entirely numbing bore. Sadly, what took me out of the film the most, as silly as it sounds, is the actress who plays Carol, Clara Lago. Though I am at this point unable to evaluate her potential for greatness, she, quite simply, looks a little bit like a boy. I am embarrassed to admit that I had such a problem with the appearance of a young actress, but I really could not get past her unisexual haircut and boyish habits. Above all, it made an adolescent romance with young Tomiche disingenuous and incredulous, rendering the emotional core of the film, well, core-less.
There is very little to say about the film, because it, itself, has very little to say about life. Carol goes on a journey. Bad stuff happens. Good stuff happens. More bad, more good, more bad. The end. Sure that is the basic premise to every film, but most others don’t drawn attention to their simplicity in the way this film does. It is hard to believe that Uribe has been making films since the golden era of movies (the seventies), since there is nothing masterful or ambitious about this undertaking. He is quoted as saying, “It seemed to me a challenge to make a film with children, in which important and serious things are counted.” I’m pretty sure just about every film fits this criterion. That’s right, every single film. Go ahead and throw one at me, out of the randomizer: Airplane! - ok, so there are kids on the plane, people are going to die if they can’t find someone who can fly a plane and didn’t have fish for dinner - check and check. How about another: Casablanca - well maybe I’m being a bit too figurative, but “Here’s lookin’ at you kid” says it all.
It is unfortunate that I must be so harsh on a filmmaker who clearly wanted to tell an exciting, important story. However, next time he should consider that wanting to tell an exciting, important story is the first step in making a pretentious, often eye-roll-inducing film. Placing the weight of a film on the shoulders of two young actors is an admirable undertaking, but the ambition of a film has no effect on its success. A movie as seemingly pointless as Airplane! can be just as successful as Casablanca in terms of what it tried and managed to achieve. Next time, Uribe should consider this loophole of sorts in the medium of film, instead telling an even less purposeful film, perhaps involving adults. This is a feat I sincerely hope he can manage.