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Chronicle of an Escape

EMAILPRINTIFC First Take

Chronicle of an Escape reviews
64
6.0 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 6 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 1 votes
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Movie Info

Genre(s): Suspense/Thriller

Written by: Adrián Caetano
Esteban Student
Julian Loyola

Directed by: Adrián Caetano

Release Date:
Theatrical: November 28, 2007
DVD: August 19, 2008

Running Time: Spanish minutes, Color

Origin: Argentina

Language(s): 103

Summary

RATING: R for brutality and torture, nudity and language

Starring Rodrigo De la Serna, Pablo Echarri, Nazareno Casero, Lautaro Delgado, Matías Marmorato, Martín Urruty, César Albarracín, and Diego Alonso

A true story of terror and survival. Buenos Aires, 1977. A task force working for the fascist Argentine military government kidnaps Claudio Tamburrini, goalkeeper of a B-league soccer team, and takes him to a clandestine detention center known as Sere Mansion: a forbidding old building in the suburban neighborhood of Moron. Claudio enters a living hell of interrogations, beatings, humiliations & betrayals. A nightmare world of arbitrary lunatic rules and relentless violence, mental and physical. Alongside other young detainees, he battles to survive while awaiting his fate to be decided. After four months of imprisonment, with execution looking certain, Claudio and three other prisoners make their desperate move. Forcing open a window in the middle of a thunderstorm, completely naked, they jump into the void. Their flight into the future begins. (IFC Films)

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

83

Entertainment Weekly Clark Collis

The result is blessed with great performances; director Israel Adrián Caetano lets events speak -- and plead and weep -- for themselves.

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80

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

The film is taut and ruthlessly constructed, with odd flashes of humor and a white-knuckle pace. Rodrigo de la Serna ("The Motorcycle Diaries") gives a committed performance as Tamburrini, today a philosophy professor in Sweden.

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75

New York Post V.A. Musetto

This film is both a warning about abuse of government power and a reassurance that justice will sometimes triumph.

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60

Variety Deborah Young

Turns the chilling story of Argentina's military regime and its large scale political murders into a tense, exciting escape thriller. Though functional on its own terms, this fourth feature by Israel Adrian Caetano feels hollow at the core, leaving a feeling of lingering disappointment over a missed opportunity to probe recent history.

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50

Village Voice Nick Pinkerton

Chronicle might be utterly uncompromising in its "you are there" visceral style--or just unresourceful. I tend toward the latter reading.

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50

The New York Times Stephen Holden

Because Chronicle of an Escape doesn’t seriously scrutinize Argentine history during the years of the so-called dirty war, when the ruling military junta sought to eliminate anyone deemed hostile, it lacks a stinging moral authority.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 6.0 (out of 10) based on 1 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Chad S. gave it a6:
Argentinian detainees, their lives hanging in the balance, are at the mercy of the Argentinian guards, who at any moment, can put the fear of god in the hostages by cocking their guns, discharging their guns. But for all the slapping around, kicking and punching, the prisoners are kept alive, despite the constant threats that their days are numbered. To keep the viewer in suspense, we need to see that the guards aren't all bark. Somebody has to bite the dust, which is why "Cronica de una fuga" never truly terrifies, nobody bites the dust. Since the film largely takes place in one setting, a little blood would transform the celluloid stage into a filmic room. And then there's the matter of the escape. It looks too easy. The guards should be aware that the hostages are a flight risk, due to their impending execution date. Perhaps the filmmaker felt a fight between the detainees and the guards would look too Hollywood, too action-y, which might have been the case, but these men simply climb out of the window with the aid of tied-together bedsheets. It looks "An Occurence at Owl Creek"-easy, as if the whole escape was a dream. In fact, the sight of four buck-naked men in the great outdoors, does indeed look somewhat dream-like.

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