Old
Cats is the kind of film that I judge long before sitting down to watch.
It's about an old couple that lives a boring life in an apartment but
something's about to happen that will definitely rattle the cage a bit. In this
film, there's a lot of dialogue and not a lot of scenery change. There are a
lot of long, still indoor shots that feel overindulgent, almost reeking of
pretentiousness. Old Cats is just one of those movies. Sometimes they work for
me and sometimes they don't. Old Cats, for most of its almost 90 minute run
time, worked for me.
It mostly worked because of Belgica
Castro, who plays the aging and possibly delusional mother, Isadora. Castro
spends most of the movie shambling around her apartment, craning her neck at
odd angles, seeming old and rusty, but somehow it is impossible to take your
eyes off her. She speaks her lines with a real sense of ferocity and somehow
makes the silence speak even louder. She outshines the rest of the cast scene
after scene after scene.
The truth is, though, not much
happens in Old Cats. The plot doesn't move anywhere and it takes a long time to
get there. The performances all around are good, but again, there's so little
plot movement that it's hard to stick with them through the whole film. The
conflict that Old Cats focuses on, the issue of ownership of an apartment, is
one that appears to be less explosive than the audience is led to believe.
See
Old Cats for Castro's spectacular and moving performance, but don't expect to
be mesmerized. There isn't enough meat or narrative power in this one to give
it the boost needed to launch it from a good film to a great one.
