Magic Magic.

Director:	Sebastian Silva
Country:	Chilean, USA
Year:	2013
Running Time:	97 mins
Principle Cast:	Juno Temple	Alicia
	Michael Cera	Brink
	Emily Browning	Sarah
	Catalina Sandino	Barbara
	Agustin Silva	Agustin

The main reason for seeing this film was  that Juno Temple was its star and after last years brilliant performance as Dottie Smith along side Matthew McConaughey in Killer Joe (2012) I was really looking forward to seeing her again in this European Premiere. But this time I was disappointed; to cut the crap this was the worst film I have seen for a quite a long time! 

The poster summed up the film 'dark and dreary'

It supposedly tells the story of a teenage girl Alicia (Juno) who arrives in Chile to go on holiday with her cousin Sarah and three of Sarah’s friends. It's the first time that this naive young girl has been out side the USA. She quickly realises that the trip is a big mistake when her cousin has to go back home to retake an exam and she's left to fit into a alien world with three people she obviously does not get on with, Sarah's boyfriend Agustin, his sister Barbara who makes it very clear that she has no time for Alicia and last but not least a nut case who calls himself Brink (played by the dreadful Michael Cera). Sarah eventually rejoins the group but by this time the paranoia that has befallen Alicia has descended to the depths of madness, having fixations and imagining all sorts of strange things: even South American witchcraft proves to be no help!

The first sixty minutes of the strangely perverse movie has very little cohesion and really did not make a lot of sense, with the second half descending into what can only be described as mumbo jumbo. The Director of Photography seemed to favour dark rather than light which really did not help the viewer grasp Sebastian Silva's story. Some viewers at the Film House screening found the film rather funny but the humour certainly went over my head. A better title would have been ‘Five go Mad in Chile’ (with apologies to Enid Blyton).