2 out of 5

Directed by: Lisandro Alonso

Based on the review I read – and which I presume at least some of the others in my theater read – my appreciation of Jauja might’ve been helped by being familiar with director Lisandro Alonso’s slow, purposeful style.  But I dig slow and purposeful, so I felt armed with appropriate expectations to proceed.  However, I realize I should qualify that I dig those qualities if I feel the end justifies the means, and though there’s certainly merit in Jauja, mine was not the only restless bum in the cinema.  We open with a long passage explaining the title which, if it indicates the type of flick it will be, will not be mentioned for the next hour and a half.  But our hope for this mystical ‘Jauja’ (and I’ll let film do its bit to lay that out for you if you’re so inclined) is certainly part of our intended journey while watching Viggo Mortensen, a Danish captain stationed in a gorgeously shot desert landscape, track down his daughter, whom he’d brought along for various reasons but has run off with another solider.  I’m sure there’s some real history around which this is based, but it doesn’t matter.  It’s all approached incredibly obliquely, and the war, or the purpose for the war – in part chasing Aboriginals out of the land – is very far away, underlined by how some key moments which would, in another film, be played up for drama or tension, are left off screen or captured in the distance.  This is, then, meant to be a contemplative film, stretching our acceptance of it as a movie as far as it can go, with long, silent shots of Viggo riding or walking back and forth across the screen.  The construction is ridiculously impressive, Timo Salminen’s crisp cinematography and the 35mm 4:3 presentation (with rounded corners to boot…) adding to the non-movie feel, as though we’re flipping pages in a picture book, and the nigh dialogue- and music-less soundtrack is replaced by insane sound work that makes every footfall and breeze palpable.  And the movie goes somewhere, and there are things to interpret.  But… even at 90 minutes, I’m just not sure it’s worth the journey.  I didn’t leave feeling affected by the film.  Hours later, I hadn’t had any extra thoughts about it.  It doesn’t seem designed to make you think so much as act like a tune playing in the background, teasing out thoughts.  As a compliment to a greater experience, I can see Jauja as having an impact.  But plopping down to watch it like a film just doesn’t seem like the right context, and I struggle to highlight something about it beyond that I believe it achieved what it wanted to, and painted a very pretty picture while doing so.