Entertainment

Chile reception for plot to overthrow dictator

Chilean strongman Augusto Pinochet seized power in a bloody 1973 coup, then in 1988 let the citizens decide whether he should continue to rule. The vote was “No,” the title of this movie told from the point of view of the leading ad man on the anti-Pinochet side.

Gael García Bernal plays (the fictional) René Saavedra, a composite of two ad gurus who steered the No campaign into a strategy heavy on cheery Dr. Pepper-style TV spots that focused on the positive: “Happiness is coming!”

Saavedra is a slick genius who is able to suppress his hatred for Pinochet well enough to produce vapid, issue-free commercials. Bring in the dancing girls, forget the mass executions! His friends are bewildered at his determination to stay frivolous.

Dramatically, Saavedra is a lackluster, almost colorless hero and the entire middle of the film is largely given over to glimpses of idiotic TV spots, not excluding bedroom double entendres produced by both sides in which randy husbands are shown begging their wives to say yes. Somehow the No side won despite running TV commercials (seen in the film) featuring Richard Dreyfuss and Jane Fonda. Yet the point that Saavedra succeeded by keeping things light is undercut when we see other, more substantive spots about brutality and poverty. It appears that the Nos won simply because they had a better case.

“No,” which has been nominated for this year’s Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, is largely a gimmick picture: At all times, it looks like hastily assembled news footage shot on grainy videotape in 1988. That means light flaring up to spoil the image, bumpy camerawork, a nearly square picture and all-around grubbiness.

Aesthetically, the overall effect is as if your retinas are getting a light massage with a hunk of tree bark, and thematically the trick doesn’t even make sense. Reality, in 1988, didn’t look like news footage, so why are all the non-televised interactions we witness presented as though we are watching them on TV? One reason: because the director (Pablo Larraín) really wants to call attention to himself. Mission accomplished, pal: Eczema is easier to ignore.

Though the No vote (by 56 percent to 44 percent) was a victory for Chilean freedom, the movie doesn’t turn that result into an emotionally engaging moment. Instead we get the sense that Saavedra feels merely quiet satisfaction. Underplayed by Bernal and barely occupying a footnote in history (despite being fictionalized), the character isn’t substantial enough to build a movie around: It’s Pinochet — the rare dictator to relinquish his presidency — who would have made a fascinating subject.