This movie is incredible. Incredibly bad that is. It is pompous, preposterous, unrealistic, naive, a postcard-like, in the vein of the famous, so much criticized and ridiculed t.v. "sopa operas" or "culebrones" coming out of Mexico. It presents Mexico and its people as some caricatures of what the film director would like them to be. The old fellow preaches to his much younger fellow students and they just nod, there is a lesson about drug taking, u see, u should not because then u will have no money to pay so the bad drug dealer will have u beaten up. U should try to read verses from Don Quijote to the complete strangers, it will make their day and yours. The old man preaches to others about life but when his equally old wife dies (and the best possible kind death it was - in her sleep) he despairs and asks the Lord the most naive and senile questions. It is all too schmaltzy, too sentimental, to corny. The student pregnant with her teacher's baby baptizes it Alicia, like the old men's dead wife. He bursts into tears at hearing this. How touching, how true. They are true friends u know, him and a group of 20 year olds, because they have known him for a few months, he is only 40 years older and he preached to them. Like in real life. The old man talks to the statue of Don Quijote and admits he has learned a lot at the university. I wonder what, a few words that the young use these days? Because nothing else. Neither do we, we learn nothing true and real about the students in Mexico these days, nothing about the old days and passing away, nothing about the differences between being young and old. In addition the cinematography is poor, the fim has a grainy transfer, the photos are poor, we see very little of the supposedly beautiful Guanajuato. I like "feel good" movies, nothng wrong with them from time to time. But they must be made in a clever, intelligent, convincing way, not like this. The most amazing of this cinematic "experience" was to watch it in a full cinema in Mexico. The room liked the film, the room found it good. Which says a lot about the state of mind of a typical Mexican person, who is polite, polished, smiling and pleasant, but apparently also superficial.
Review of El Estudiante
