Neruda

Name: Neruda
Genre: Biography, Drama, History, Crime
Released: December 16, 2016
Duration: 107 min
Rating: 82
Cast: Gael García Bernal, Luis Gnecco

2016

METASCORE

Universal acclaim based on 28 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 27 Ratings

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7.1	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 27 Ratings

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Neruda (US)

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Movie Details & Credits

Orchard, The | Release Date: December 16, 2016 | R

Starring: Gael García Bernal, Luis Gnecco

Summary: Beloved poet Pablo Neruda (Luis Gnecco) is also the most famous communist in post-WWII Chile. When the political tides shift, he is forced underground, with a perseverant police inspector (Gael García Bernal) hot on his trail. Meanwhile, in Europe, the legend of the poet hounded by the policeman grows, and artists led by Pablo PicassoBeloved poet Pablo Neruda (Luis Gnecco) is also the most famous communist in post-WWII Chile. When the political tides shift, he is forced underground, with a perseverant police inspector (Gael García Bernal) hot on his trail. Meanwhile, in Europe, the legend of the poet hounded by the policeman grows, and artists led by Pablo Picasso clamor for Neruda’s freedom. Neruda, however, sees the struggle with his police inspector nemesis as an opportunity to reinvent himself. He cunningly plays with the inspector, leaving clues designed to make their game of cat-and-mouse ever more perilous. In this story of a persecuted poet and his obsessive adversary, Neruda recognizes his own heroic possibilities: a chance to become a symbol for liberty, as well as a literary legend. [The Orchard]… Expand

Director: Pablo Larraín

Genre(s): Biography, Drama, History, Crime

Rating: R

Runtime: 107 min

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Critic Reviews

100

Melissa Anderson

Dec 13, 2016

Referents and identities are always slightly unfixed in Neruda, a film that reaches dizzying, exhilarating velocity by flouting the conventions of its hidebound genre. Read full review

The Playlist Jessica Kiang

May 21, 2016

A dexterous, mischievous, almost incomprehensibly intelligent film that has such invention packed into every frame that the only real danger is overload, Neruda works most thrillingly as an effusive love letter to the very concept of fiction and all the ways it can set you free, written in lyrical but staccato meter, perhaps with a rose between the teeth. Read full review

Ty Burr

Mar 16, 2017

Neruda is a dream of Chile, of what it was and might have been, brought to the screen by a master dreamer. Read full review

Allan Hunter

May 21, 2016

It is often very funny, unsettling and yet still proves illuminating on the character of Neruda and the battle for Chile in the 1940s. Read full review

Anthony Lane

Dec 26, 2016

Where “Paterson” is tranquil to the point of inertia, Neruda, with its jumpy shifts of scene, its doses of casual surrealism, and its mashing of high politics against low farce, struck me as more of a poem. It reminds us that movies, by their very nature, owe far more to poetry than they ever will to the novel. The story is only the start. Read full review

Alan Zilberman

Mar 9, 2017

This is not a film about Neruda’s life or controversial death. This is a film for folks who are unfamiliar with the writing of Neruda, or maybe even skeptical about poetry in general. They may not cherish every word of the poet’s most heartbreaking lines, but they’ll understand the man who wrote them a little better those who already do. Read full review

Joshua Rothkopf

Dec 21, 2016

Tonally, it’s a touch awkward (like the movie as a whole), but Larraín’s endgame set on a snowy mountainside is as abstract as the final moments of "The Shining" — a film that’s also about the life of the mind. Read full review

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User Reviews

lvmnz

Apr 3, 2017

This film was quite spell-binding. Watched this a few months ago, so am light on specifics. Suitably dabbles metaphysically with the notion of autobiography.

1 of 2 users found this helpful11

Brent_Marchant

Jan 2, 2017

An inventive, semi-surrealistic chronicle of the manhunt for Chilean poet and Communist politician Pablo Neruda after the government issued an order for his arrest as a subversive. The sometimes-campy, somewhat noir-esque tale, told from the perspective of the self-absorbed police inspectorAn inventive, semi-surrealistic chronicle of the manhunt for Chilean poet and Communist politician Pablo Neruda after the government issued an order for his arrest as a subversive. The sometimes-campy, somewhat noir-esque tale, told from the perspective of the self-absorbed police inspector who fancied his search for his prey as his own work of art, presents its material with ample laughs, great style and beautiful cinematography. The film certainly pushes the limits of the biopic genre, but it does so in such a refreshing and well-written way that it's hard not to like this innovative offering. Far from normal, but immensely entertaining to watch.… Expand

1 of 2 users found this helpful11

LeZee

Nov 29, 2017

Chile's own catch me if you can!

It was Chile's Oscars pick. It made into Golden Globe, but not the Oscars. After I disliked his previous film, looks Larrain back in action. Though, not entirely. This was a biopic, more or less a Chilean version of 'Catch Me If You Can' with a lessChile's own catch me if you can!

It was Chile's Oscars pick. It made into Golden Globe, but not the Oscars. After I disliked his previous film, looks Larrain back in action. Though, not entirely. This was a biopic, more or less a Chilean version of 'Catch Me If You Can' with a less intensity in its contents. If you are a fan of this director's narration then you might enjoy it. But I thought it was a little boring, due to slow moving story. Especially, half of the film was a background narration than the direct dialogues between the characters. The issue was, it was like someone in the bed, ill and they are narrating a tale. Too low voice like whispering which is equal to lullaby.

On the other hand, now and then there were some fine scenes. It was a cat-mouse game. But nothing thrilling enough like you would expect from a cop chasing a bad guy films. The story was not deep or detail. Only those limited life events of Neruda were present on the screen. Most of them were silly ones, or maybe made it to look like that way. That's why it felt like a dark comedy. From the cop's perspective, don't expect like Sherlock Holmes level. The cast was good. The locations too, but not those projectors clips for backgrounds during vehicles scenes. So just an above average film. Though should have been better.

6/10… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

GreatMartin

Feb 8, 2017

When will I learn to walk out of a movie that is boring me?! I went to see “Neruda” only knowing that Pablo Neruda (Luis Gnecco) was a Nobel Prize winning poet and I left knowing even less. How much was true? How much was the imagination of the screenwriter Guilermo Calderon and directorWhen will I learn to walk out of a movie that is boring me?! I went to see “Neruda” only knowing that Pablo Neruda (Luis Gnecco) was a Nobel Prize winning poet and I left knowing even less. How much was true? How much was the imagination of the screenwriter Guilermo Calderon and director Pablo Larrain? The last movie I saw by Larrain was “Jackie” and a lot of that was made up dialogue supposedly spoken by the first lady.

Is Detective Oscar Peluchonneau (Gael Garcia Bernal) a real person, a figment of Calderon and Larrain’s imagination and/or a nod to Inspector Jacques Clouseau of the Pink Panther series? Is it Bernal doing all the narration or a mix of him and Gnecco or Emilo Gutierrez (as Pablo Picasso)? Was his wife Delia (Mercedes Moran) as abused, mentally and emotionally, as pictured and being a very smart woman would she have put up with it for so long?

More important, did the meaning of the movie just go above my head? To be honest I really didn’t care whether all the questions were answered or not as I was just waiting for something, anything to keep me watching it for a few minutes, waiting for the film to redeem all the time I was wasting watching it!

For whatever reason, I can no more stop reading a book before ‘the end’ as bad as it may be, and I don’t walk out of a movie until the last scene as boring as it may be.

Save your time and money and don’t see “Neruda”!… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

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