Depp the special hot sauce in the muddled mix of 'Mexico'
Zal Sethna / Daily Yomiuri Staff Writer
Once Upon a Time in Mexico (Japan title: Legend of Mexico)
3 stars (out of five)
Dir: Robert Rodriguez
Cast: Antonio Banderas, Johnny Depp, Salma Hayek
Any review of Robert Rodriguez's Once Upon a Time in Mexico has to begin with Johnny Depp and end with Johnny Depp. Like his mascara-wearing, deliriously kooky pirate in Pirates of the Caribbean, his character in Mexico is the primary source of entertainment during the movie's run and the only thing you really remember when you leave the theater. Antonio Banderas might put on a good show playing the film's nameless hero, but not for a second is there any doubt about who owns the movie.
Depp plays crooked CIA Agent Sands, whose only pleasure in life is playing God in a chaotic country--he'll shoot a cook for being too good just to keep order. The latest plot he's cooked up involves having the unpopular, if well-intentioned, Mexican president deposed by a rebel general, and then having the rebel assassinated before he can take over the country's leadership. Just another game for Sands, but this time with a sizable payoff as well from the funding the general is receiving from drug lord Barillo (Willem Dafoe).
Any way you look at him, he's a pretty despicable character. But Depp works his peculiar charm to make Sands out to be more a lethal clown than a Machiavellian villain. You really can't remain too mad at a CIA agent who hands out dirty money in a Clash of the Titans lunchbox and wears CIA T-shirts in broad daylight. Depp also continues to demonstrate his meticulous craft of gestures and phrasing, which makes him just as much a riot here as he was in Pirates.
This makes him a good contrast against Banderas' El Mariachi, the guitar-and-gun-slinging man with no name whom Sands hires to assassinate the rebel leader--who, incidentally, killed the wife (Salma Hayek, shown only in flashbacks) and kid of "El" in a fit of jealous rage. El is nowhere near as unintentionally goofy here as he was in Rodriguez's Desperado, and he spends most of his time brooding, either over the havoc ruling the country that he loves or the death of his family. In a way, Depp's offbeat humor is a tonic to the relentless grimness of our hero.
But Banderas doesn't let himself merely play second-fiddle to Depp. He translates El's solemnity into a composed, heroic presence that's more befitting the legend his character is to the people of Mexico. He also jumps, dances and pirouettes past bullets as gracefully as he did nine years ago in Desperado--not bad for a 43-year-old actor.
The very watchable consistency of the two stars' acts help pull the film together when it often threatens to fall into chaos. Granted, this chaos reflects the state of affairs in the story, but frankly you'd rather see the confusion than become a part of it. Rodriguez, who also edited (or "chopped" as the credits put it) the movie, is generally efficient in this department, but the story just has way too many subplots and double-crosses going on for even him to present clearly.
There are other faults too. The film feels just a little too cold for a Rodriguez movie, and the rustic B-movie charms in which he normally soaks his films are conspicuously few in this third installment of his Mariachi trilogy. It's like he took the title to heart and attempted to match Sergio Leone in the ambition he brought to Once Upon a Time in America.
That kind of ambition should be commended but Rodriguez is never sure in which direction he wants to take the movie. So surefire jokes, like Barillo being spied on by a chihuahua with a video camera in its collar, fail to catch on while the human drama of whether El will let the president be assassinated just to ensure his own chance at revenge against the rebel leader is kept brief and tensionless.
That said, Rodriguez still hasn't lost his touch with action scenes, which is really what this kind of movie is all about. Together with Banderas, his favorite leading man, Rodriguez creates slick, visually creative action scenarios that keep you from thinking too much about the flaws. The last 20 minutes are chock-full of them, with the highlight being one of the best Western duels ever--Sands, having just lost both of his eyes, facing off two of Barillo's cronies with only a small kid to give him direction.
Bringing in Depp to the Rodriguez-Banderas combo should have been the ultimate source of entertainment, because he and the director share such a similarly warped sense of humor. Unfortunately, with Mexico, Rodriguez isn't in the best of shape, which leaves Depp in the same situation he found himself in Pirates--given free reign to do exactly as he pleases by a practically anonymous director. Given that Rodriguez normally puts a far more distinct stamp on his work than does Pirates' Gore Verbinsky, that's a bit of a disappointment, even if what's left is still a pretty good action flick.
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"My name is Sheldon Jeffrey Sands. I work for the Central Intelligence Agency.
I throw shapes and they catch. I set them up, I watch them fall. I'm living la vida loca."
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