The Aura (2005)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

The Aura (2005) – F. Bielinsky

Argentinian neo-noir from the makers of Nine Queens (2000; Director Fabián Bielinsky; Star Ricardo Darín) that sets a mood that lingers and lingers in the grey-green Patagonian forest.  Is it possible to imagine this same plot set in the 1940s/50s world of the original noirs? Perhaps, yes, without too much trying.  Darín plays a taxidermist with epilepsy who might also fall somewhere along the autistic spectrum, having a unique almost photographic memory and a facility for plotting heists in his head.  But he speaks little and rubs others the wrong way when he does, preferring animals to people. His personal life seems very empty.  It is hard to warm up to him.  So, when he ventures on a hunting trip with a taxidermy colleague and winds up alienating him, we aren’t surprised.  But when he accidentally shoots and kills the owner of their hunting lodge and inserts himself into the casino heist that the man was planning, we suspect that he is getting in over his head.  Even more so when two gangsters show up to help carry out the robbery.  Bielinsky lets the plot unfold slowly, preferring to observe Darín’s responses as he encounters the other players (e.g., the host’s young wife, Dolores Fonzi) and as he hits inevitable snags in his plans.  Of course, his seizures occur at the least opportune times.  Perhaps a tighter film might have shed a few minutes to its benefit -- but the focus here is on noir-ish mood (anxiety, uncertainty, dread) less than on plot, remember? There are lots of dissolves here! Unfortunately, director Bielinsky died of a heart attack soon after the film was made, so this proved his last accomplishment.