The Film

Wearing a title that sounds like a melding of sub-Sergio Leone spaghetti western and Carry-On style British comedy, To Die in San Hilario is a low key comedy that starts rather well and drifts along at an engagingly casual pace, then follows a too predictable path and before the end tips over into sentimentality.

The straightforward set-up informs us that the small town of San Hilario was once famous for the splendour of its funerals, but in the past ten years trade has tapered off. Out of the blue a letter arrives informing the townspeople that a man named Germán Cortes, who grew up in the town but left to become a successful painter, is returning with the intention of dying there and being buried in the style he remembers from his youth. For the town this is a big deal, a chance to perhaps to revive their dormant speciality.

Once this has been explained, things get a little more intriguing, as we flit between stories and watch with bemusement as a man interrupts his suicide attempt to write down something that's just occurred to him and a priest breaks from his agitated prayers to smash up a statue of Saint Benedict. And then there's 'Piernas' ('Legs') Germán, a gangster who escapes a shoot-out with a bagful of money and hops into a freight car on a train heading towards...well, you've guessed it. On board the same train is Mr. Cortes, but despite his determination to die at his chosen location, he pegs out en route. Expecting Mr. Cortes and having no idea what he looks like, the San Hilario residents thus accept the bemused Piernas as the man they have been waiting for.

What follows will hold few surprises for the experienced viewer, as the villagers prepare for the funeral of a man who doesn't realise just why he is the centre of attention. Ordered to stay put by his boss until the heat dies down, he plays up to a role he is learning on the hoof, which all goes well enough until he is expected, as his final artistic act, paint a mural on the church wall.

The gentle eccentricity of the town and its locals lends these scenes a charm and humour that is undeniably engaging. There are no big jokes, just small, smile-raising moments - the smiling but twitchy enthusiasm of town governor Mariano, the room-with-a-view that overlooks the graveyard, the map that locates the town in the middle of a big white space of nothingness, Piernas's childishly crude mural that is mistaken for abstract symbolism and admired for its purity.

But once Piernas realises what is happening and starts to warm to the town and its residents, the film's charm begins to wane. Piernas learns some life lessons, falls for the girl, engages with her kid, and learns to express himself through art. It's all very familiar stuff - gangsters who suddenly discover their sensitive side are like whores with a heart of gold, cinematic clichés that require a very deft hand and an original slant to provide any narrative surprises, and Legs Germán, well enough played though he is by Lluís Homar, just doesn't have it.

As the aspects that provide the initial hook unravel and charming eccentricity is revealed to be symptoms of inner pain that Piernas's newly discovered good nature can help cure, my smiles were substituted for the sound of air being sucked through closed teeth. Pretty much every twist in the tale can be seen coming because you've seen it all before, to the degree that you can easily predict how all this will end even before you reach the halfway mark.

Ultimately To Die in San Hilario lacks ambition and bite and retreads well worn and somewhat flimsy turf without creating substantial new footprints of its own. Despite the disappointment of their last two films, I couldn't help but wonder what Joel and Ethan Coen might have done with the same basic premise.

Sound and Vision

No complaints with the transfer - 1.78:1 and anamorphically enhanced, the picture displays good contrast and colour and a pleasing level of detail, without obvious edge enhancement.

Dolby 5.1 and DTS surround options are offered, the DTS being slightly louder and richer than it's Dolby brother. Surround effects are subtly used, but make themselves known when appropriate.

Extra Features

The Trailer (2:03) is non-anamorphic but otherwise in fine shape.

There are a series of increasingly brief Interviews (11:18) with director Laura Mañá and actors Lluís Homar, who plays Piernas, Ana Fernández (Esther), Juan Echanove (Father Antonio), Ferran Rañé (Teodoro), and Ulises Dumont (town governor Mariano).

B Roll (6:47) is a short compilation of behind-the-scenes footage. It's a little formless but interesting nonetheless, and it usefully demonstrates how different a scene lit for film is degraded when captured on DV video.

Summary

A pleasingly low key set-up unfortunately leads nowhere new, and in the end proved a little too twee for my taste. There are still a fair few things to enjoy in the first half, often almost throwaway moments, my favourite being Teodoro's explanation of one man's demise. "He was an inventor," Piernas is told, "he used to fly at funerals. And that's how he died, flying." "He crashed?" asks Piernas reasonably. "No," Teodoro explains, "he died flying through the air, due to an explosion."

The DVD from Warner Vision International is short on extra features but looks and sounds good. If gentle, undemanding whimsy is your bag, then you'll have few complaints here.