SYNOPSIS
Operating in Santiago under the thumb of an organized crime network, brothers Manuel (Pedro Fontaine) and Oscar (Marco Antonio Caponi) have spent the past fifteen years in a dangerous but lucrative business: helping fugitives vanish by faking their deaths. Using a clandestine chemical process, they make their clients appear deceased, bury them alive, and then resurrect them hours later across the Argentina-Chile border. Now, Manuel is retired, working as a rural doctor, and about to become a father. But there’s no escaping the past, and one last job draws him into a spiral of betrayal and violence.
What We Thought:
The Reborn is a solid drama that I could totally see getting a Hollywood remake. It’s well acted, well focused and holds your attention throughout. I don’t believe I’m familiar with anyone in the cast, but they all do their jobs well and it never wanders because of it.
The film is about two brothers who help fugitives fake their deaths to escape from the type of people you need escaping from. They use chemicals to make the people appear dead, have funerals, get them buried and everything and then revive them to get them across the border. One brother tried going legit and was a doctor about to have a child. Unfortunately his past comes crawling back and he’s stuck doing one more job with his brother who had become estranged.
The film is part gangster drama, part Flatliners, but also feels like a neo Western. The brothers have a past thanks to their mother where they played around and were able to develop their chemical ritual. There’s enough going on in the country that you understand why someone would pay to try to get out of Dodge. It’s shot like a Western with tracking shots and landscapes and has a great aesthetic and vibe to it.
The doctor brother reminded me of Jamie Dornan and I could see him in the same role of a Hollywood remake. That was definitely my biggest takeaway from The Reborn, someone in Hollywood will definitely want the rights to it. It’s not even 90 minutes long so it jumps right into the story and uses flashbacks to their childhood so you understand how they developed their techniques. I saw the word taut used to describe it and I couldn’t agree more. It moves quickly, has a fantastic look to it and a great score. For a film I knew absolutely nothing about, it’s a solid surprise.
RECOMMENDED!
