Review of Abel (2010) by Mike M — 23 Dec 2010
Takes a while to find its comic groove, then delivers a run of chucklesome scenarios that, collectively, offer a light sending-up of stern Latin patriarchal values... It's a little cosy, closer in tone to "Malcolm in the Middle" (self-assured youngster becomes voice of familial wisdom) than the uncanny item a Pasolini or Bunuel might have fashioned from such an ostensibly bourgeois-baiting set-up: Luna approaches this only once, with the jarring image of Abel and his mother in bed together, sharing what look disconcertingly like post-coital cigarettes.
By the denouement - a frightening encounter with the adult world that confirms Abel is, after all, still a child, and thus likely to venture out of his depth - normal service has been resumed; the consolation is that what's gone before has displayed a fair bit of the infectious mischief to be found in Luna's previous on-screen activity.
This review of Abel (2010) was written by Mike M on 23 Dec 2010.
Abel has generally received positive reviews.
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