Review of To Die in San Hilario

Introduction

Films centering on the mistaken identity of the protagonist are nothing new, whether it`s Cary Grant in `North by Northwest`, John Travolta and Nicholas Cage in `Face/Off`, Josh Hartnett in `Lucky Number Slevin`, Jeff Bridges in `The Big Lebowski`, or even Jennifer Lopez in `Maid in Manhattan` and `To Die in San Hilario` is another addition to this list, but to the best of my knowledge, the first from South America.

San Hilario, a sleepy Argentinian town, arranges lavish funerals and is so good at it that funerals are the backbone of the town`s economy. However, with the opening of funeral parlours across the country, business has more or less died out, so when they hear that a renowned artist has planned to die in their town and have his funeral there, the townspeople are very understandably excited and await his arrival with much anticipation.

Plans go awry when Germán Cortés, the artist, dies on his way and is removed from the train by the railway employees whilst a gangster known as `Legs` (Lluís Homar) betrays his gang and escapes with a bag full of stolen money on the same train disembarking at San Hilario where the welcoming committee assume he is Germán Cortés. `Legs` is happy to play along with this until he finds out that he is due to be buried within a fortnight and must try to extricate himself from this predicament.

Video

A beautiful and blemish-free 1.78:1 transfer which shows off the lush colours of the desert surroundings and the dusty and weathered town.
The subtitles are very clear and easy to read with only a couple of spelling/grammatical mistakes - for example, in one case, `they`re` is written as `their`.

Audio

The Spanish DD 5.1 and DTS 5.1 soundtracks are both fantastically clear and are almost unnecessary given the dialogue-dominated nature of the film - I only counted 3 scenes where the surrounds were used, but it`s surely better to have a 5.1 mix that you don`t really need than to need a 5.1 mix you don`t have.

Features

A typical EPK package that includes a trailer, interviews with the four principal actors and director and a short `B-roll` of behind the scenes footage. Nothing to get excited about.

Conclusion

A film about mistaken identity is nothing new and `To Die in San Hilario` is an easy comedy to watch although I spent much of the film thinking what the Coen brothers or Tim Burton, for instance, could have done with the same material, turning it into a black comedy with a darker undercurrent than Laura Mañá did.

Mañá shows herself to be a competent director and is ably assisted by a cast (especially Lluís Homar) who do their reputations no harm at all with fine performances.

`To Die in San Hilario` has all the ingredients for a terrific black comedy and it`s a shame that Laura Mañá decided to make a gentle and life-affirming film instead. This is not to say that it doesn`t have its moments and is quite charming and very watchable but it is, unfortunately, a missed opportunity and a film that may benefit from a remake.