Name: Cronos (1993)
IMDb: link to Cronos page
Genres: Horror, Mystery. Country of origin: Mexico
Cast: Federico Lupi as Jesus Gris, Ron Perlman as Angel de la Guardia, Claudio Brook as de la Guardia (Angel's uncle), Tamara Shanath as Aurora (Jesus' grandchild), Margarita Isabel as Mercedes (Jesus' wife).
Written and directed by: Guillermo del Toro.
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| Aurora, the cronos device, and Jesus himself. |
The initial tableaux:
In 1535, an alchemist builds the cronos device, which allows for extended lifetimes. Four hundred years later, the alchemist is killed. His belongings go on public auction, and the cronos device attains anonymity. That's what the all-knowing narrator tells us, anyway. Alchemy means 'huge pack of lies' in my book, so alchemy can substitute for supernatural here.
At Christmas time in Mexico, the antiques dealer Jesus Gris buys a statue of an angel. After some time, roaches emerge, which prompts Jesus to investigate the base of the statue, which contains the cronos device, which he extracts.
Elsewhere, Angel receives orders from his uncle to purchase an angel statue that was recently sold in the antiques markets. He finds Jesus' shop, and buys the statue with his uncle's money.
Delineation of conflicts:
Angel is a blunt instrument. His uncle pays him good money, and he is in the uncle's will. So if his uncle wants something, Angel goes after it with little regard for law or morality. His sick uncle wants to have objects that might lead to eternal life.
At first, Jesus is merely curious about the cronos device. After a few interactions, Jesus is obsessed with mastering the power that lies within the cronos device.
Angel's uncle immediately discovers that the device is missing from the statue. Angel pursues Jesus, who proves more difficult to deal with than Angel expected.
One line summary: Foreshadows qualities seen in the director's later works.
Statistics:
Cinematography: 9/10 Good. My eyes were delighted most of the time.
Sound: 9/10 Better than adequate, but with occasional overwrought incidental music.
Acting: 10/10 Fine acting by the five leads.
Screenplay: 10/10 Exceptional. The director's touch is evident even in this first effort. Motivation, exposition of consequences, and logical flow of events were right on the money. The ends that the characters meet fit their personalities, which was a nice touch, and one frequently omitted in more current films.
Hulu+ pushes the Criterion Collection relentlessly. That push has the opposite reaction in me, and I almost did not watch this film. The fact that audience ratings were significantly lower than the critics' average rating gives me another layer of pause. Since I liked Mimic and Pan's Labyrinth, I gave it a try anyway, and was glad that I did. In this case I ended up siding with the critics.
Final Rating: 9/10 This is a fine first film that foreshadows qualities seen in the director's later works.
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