Timothy Shary Duvall owns this film, starring, writing, and directing... but he does not seem to know if he wants to make a movie about the beauty of tango or the banality of organized murder. At once it seems like he is trying to draw a parallel between the passion of dance and the intricacies of crime, but he allows scenes to drag on too long without significant action or dialogue.I get the feeling that Duvall wanted to celebrate the tango in its natural habitat without indulging in the erotic aspects of the dance, just as he wanted to portray a crotchety assassin in a foreign land without speaking of the relevant political context. He wants to keep it all simple: great dancing and a little bit of murder. And that is all we get.For a movie about such potent subjects as sex and death, dance and crime, loyalty and treachery, Duvall's storytelling here is just lukewarm. The fact that his protagonist meets such a captivating girl and does not consummate the relationship is indicative of the film's own lack of fulfillment. The painfully weak ending further betrays the energy of the dance the film purports to enjoy.

ctomvelu1 Odd little movie shot in Argentina about an American hit man sent to take our a general, only to find himself with time on his hands before he can take out the general and return home. To kill time, he takes up the tango, and the movie is as much about this unusual development as the impending assassination. Robert Duvall directed and starred in it, and it is worth watching for him and him alone. Ruben Blades costars. The dancing is great, but it's not enough to sustain a whole movie. This would appear to be a pet project of Duvall's. I hesitate to call it a vanity production like most Tom Cruise movies. The title is very literal with regardt the plot.

Tim Johnson Diane and I watched this engrossing film last night after she had purchased it because of her recent trip to Buenos Aries and both of us loved what we saw. I guess, because of my general drift towards evaluating films visually, I was taken by Felix Monti's cinematography which was deep and almost malevolent in its intensity--a perfect match to the unfolding drama. The movie remains open ended at its conclusion with a number of parts at the end that, as usually happens, does not leave absolutes for viewer. This ambiguity must be a factor of my lame mind but it is an obvious tool used by the Duvall to leave threads of thought left untied.As opposed to many that post their reviews of movies on this site, I use IMDb as a diary of personal impressions about films I have just seen: not necessarily thoughts about the script of a movie' just my immediate ideas that flow into my thoughts after a movie's conclusion. Hence I take movies at face value; I do not even evaluate movies that I do not like. This movie has been criticized for Duvall's appearance as an aged man; the movie's bad dancing; Dufall's arrogance in making a movie that is "his baby" alone and other attacks too numerous to mention. I cannot agree however; the movie was slow moving and as such it painted for me a delicious pastische of the life of a complicated man doing a surreal job under surreal circumstances. Of course there may be holes in the plot and holes in the execution of that plot but to my mind, a movie, as a whole, must take on a dynamic of its own and this movie certainly did for this viewer.Diane said that the shots of the cafe's and the Tango clubs and the music and the dancing are what she saw in BA when she visited last year. Duvall's direction was excellent in that all the actors delivered their lines in documentary style with no sound stage or theater theatrics. I had the feeling that I wasn't looking at a movie, except for the subject matter, just a look into the life of a guy in a foreign city doing a job. The substance of that job comes as a shock when reality kicks in towards the end but in the totality of the movie it plays such a small part.We both loved the film, no doubt for different reasons but the satisfaction was the same. Definitely check it out after reading other comments if only to see what you think.

neighbourcarol I loved this! There a dark element to it ,but also a very romantic side. I've read Robert Duvall loves to tango in real life, and his dancing in this is so graceful and talented. The dancing in this is exquisite and the women so lovely and natural. They have the most beautiful legs I've ever seen. I was entranced by the dancing and Robert Duvall's performance was, as usual, without fault. I highly recommend it for Robert Duvall fans. The film makes me want to visit Argentina and see in person their beautiful dancing. I read somewhere that Duvall said that as writer, producer and actor he had trouble getting financing from the major studios, so he did it himself. Most of the scenes were filmed in New York for that reason. In my opinion, the final result is stellar!