TIFF Review: TONY MANERO
You will be forgiven if a quick glance at the premise of Pablo Larrain's Tony Manero leads you to believe that the film must be a comedy. After all, it is about a fifty two year old Chilean man so obsessed with John Travolta's character in Saturday Night Fever that he is willing to go to any extreme, even murder, to transform himself into his idol's image and win a lookalike contest on TV. With a concept like that how could it be anything but a comedy? Quite simply because Larrain sets his film against the backdrop of the Pinochet dictatorship in 1978 - one of the most oppressive regimes in history, one marked by death squads, military rule, enforced curfews and abductions - and because his cast, particularly Alfredo Castro in the lead, are so deeply commited to the realities of their characters and the worlds in which they live.
Castro is Raul, a middle aged man with no real prospects for his future, eking out a living putting on stage shows at a dingy bar with his quasi-girlfriend, her daughter and the daughter's boyfriend. He is broken down, impotent, at the mercy of a government that doesn't care if he lives or dies. Is it any wonder, then, that he would latch on to any image of a better life with such ferocity? That thing is Saturday Night Fever and John Travolta as Tony Manero. Raul visits the theater obsessively, often the only person there, memorizing lines and moves and trying to become his idol. He has a copy of Manero's suit custom tailored. He is obsessed with creating a glass floor in the bar so that he can recreate the dancing scenes precisely. And, most of all, he wants to win the Tony Manero lookalike contest being held on a local television station the next week.
As we follow Raul's quest it is impossible to escape the spectre of Pinochet and his regime. Citizens hide from military squads in the streets, curfew is strictly enforced, the youngsters at the bar are quietly involved in the resistance movement. Combine Raul's obsession with the simple fact that in 1978 Chile people disappeared on a regular basis thanks to Pinochet, should it come as a surprise that Raul turns to murder to get what he wants? Who would notice? Who would care? Who is there to stop him? The answer is nobody and so Raul continues on his course no matter what the cost, so consumed by it that he fails utterly to realize either how foolish or how utterly impossible his goals are.
Tony Manero is played so straight, with such a deep sense of conviction that it becomes utterly engrossing, a portrait of a man and a world spiraling absurdly out of control. That Raul idolizes the American way of life that helped create Pinochet in the first place adds a sharp layer of satire to the proceedings - there are a number of fascinating ways that the film can be unpacked - but while Larrain certainly wants to address the issues of his nation's recent past he resists the urge to preach, keeping the narrative firmly in the hands and lives of his characters. The entire cast is very strong, the film shot in a raw, handheld style that lends immediacy and force to it all. A surprising, challenging, engrossing film, Tony Manero marks Larrain as a serious talent.
