After a line of mindless commercial ventures (Single White Female), director Barbet Schroeder has returned to the psychosexual arena of his earliest critical success Maitresse. Less controversially themed though eminently similar in parts, Our Lady of the Assassins is unlikely to restore his credibility.
The film centers on Vallejo (German Jaramillo), an aging writer returning to his birthplace of Medilin, Colombia, only to be confronted with the violent and drug-addled existences of its citizens. Forming a relationship with teenage prostitute Alexis (Anderson Ballesteros), they roam the lawless streets. Events unfold bearing the structural resemblance of a fable (a streetwise 'Grim Reaper’ supernaturally appears to warn Alexis of impending danger), yet the characters demonstrate little grasp of morality.
The audience is never informed as to why this cynical, soul-searching writer returns to this city 'to die’, and the couple’s supposed 'love’ fails to convince beyond a man-boy perversion, so as a romance the film fails. Almost everything important is either frustratingly concealed or cringingly obvious. Both characters are scripted so poorly that they come off as bland, underdeveloped and irritating.
Our Lady of the Assassins ends near to where it begins, not as a result of deliberate plotting but because so little has been developed throughout the course of the film.
Filmink 2/5
