Review of To the Sea (2010) by Steven L — 06 Jan 2012

Alamar is the "story" of a boy named Natan, who is in a string between a divorced couple (an Italian mother and a Hispanic father), and his father strives to remain a figure in his son's life. Therefore, he takes his son to a very small area near the ocean in Mexico, where he learns to fish, to snorkel, and of some of the facts of life. Notice that I put "story" in quotations. That is because the film does not come across as an actual film, but more as a documentary in the way it is filmed and put together. The film is very suttle in the way of it's filming, and it is very quiet. It doesn't feel like they really wanted to bang you over the head with a message. It doesn't even feel like an average documentary. It just feels like they wanted to make it because... well, they wanted to. And that is the spirit of the film which I love so much.

Honestly, what I wanted more from the film was to show more of how the boy's mother prepared him, and for them to compare the two. But then again, the film is only an hour and 13 minutes, so I could see why they focused much on the father (and boy, do they go into detail for such a short runtime). It is a nice film. The kind to invite into your house for a day, and send it back on its way home. Inspiring in a way.