Review of Even the Rain (2011) by Chandler B — 27 Mar 2012

Well scripted, acted and directed. If one were to take issue with the film it would most likely be with its politics, as is evidenced in some of the reviews of the Top Critics. But I take issue with such negative interpretations. Yes, the film exhibits a liberal bias overall, but it also offers an interesting critique of first-world elitist sympathies for the less-fortunate.

I love this film but I really feel like it's near-universally misunderstood. Almost everyone seems to classify it as (albeit well-made) art-house propaganda with an overt political message. I do not see it as such.

The film that this film is about (a Christopher Columbus Imperialist guilt-fest) could most surely be described as "obvious" and unabashedly ideological. But the degree of separation that we are offered as the viewers of THIS film and not THAT one has a definite satirical implication. The scripted dialogue of the Columbus film, intentionally straining for lyricism, is meant to strengthen the ironic critique the film is giving itself.

Think of it this way: if a Hollywood movie today were made about the MAKING of a Nazi propaganda film, with characters having dinner conversations about the virtues of eugenics and the glory of the Reich, NO critic would argue that the Hollywood film is extolling Nazism. Why is this film, in opposite respect obviously, different?

I'm not saying that Even the Rain carries a conservative political message (it obviously doesn't). The film does, however, critically examine and mildly satirize idealistic liberalism even if, in its heart, that what it WANTS to argue for.