Review: A Wandering Bride (2007)

Directed by: Ana Katz | 90 minutes | drama | Actors: Ana Katz, Carlos Portaluppi, Daniel Hendler, Catherine Biquard, Nicolás Tacconi, Arturo Goetz, Erica Rivas, Violeta Urtizberea

Ana Katz is one of the many young female directors currently active in Argentina. This trend promises much more for a future full of personal, modest cinema. In this cautious, but warm debut, Katz literally exposes himself by also taking the lead role and never disappearing from the screen from the first minute. After friend Miguel abandons her, Inès is completely at the mercy of herself and we are left to her.

After a typical holiday fight – the woman wants to get to the bottom of the disagreement, regardless of the precarious circumstances, in this case a bus full of sleeping people, while the man has absolutely no desire to argue, prefers to sleep and everything in his bluntness just makes things worse – Inès gets off the bus, assuming her boyfriend is following her. Much to her surprise, this is not the case and when she arrives alone at the hotel where the couple would spend a romantic weekend, Miguel is nowhere to be seen there either. From that moment on, Inès is tossed back and forth between different emotions: on the one hand she feels cheated and abandoned, but at the same time she is pleasantly surprised by the unannounced quality time she is allowed to spend with herself. Trying to make the most of it, Ines is helped by the friendly staff of the hotel and the kind Germán (Carlos Portaluppi), a lonely man who has lived in Mar de las Pampas for years and clearly needs contact. Inès is flattered and feels taken care of by this good man, but does not know what to do with his advances.

In the meantime, she can’t help but keep calling Miguel, who just went back to Buenos Aires and clearly wants to end the relationship without any clear explanation for the incident. On the phone, Inès turns into a vulnerable, almost hysterical woman who cannot hide her anger and despair and would do anything to get Miguel back. A vulnerable woman who reveals herself in this way is perhaps a bit unusual as the main character, but it is a nice alternative to the overly confident Hollywood woman, who is never just abandoned by a man, let alone an entire movie.

This nuanced look at things and Inès’ doubtfulness are at the same time the strength and weakness of the film, because the protagonist’s lingering slowly spills over into the entire film, causing ‘Una novia errante’ to lose its power.