An aging film director returns quickly from Madrid to Buenos Aires when he learns of his nineteen-year old son's drug overdose. When summoned to the boy's bedside, Martin believes his son has tried to commit suicide, although the facts are unclear. What is apparent, however, is that the director (Frederico Luppi), known only as Martin, has distanced himself from his family, hiding his emotions to those who looked to him for support: his son, his mistress Alicia (Cecilia Roth), and his gay actor friend Dante (Eusebio Poncela). Potentially melodramatic, Argentinean director Adolfo Aristarain's (A Place in the World) Martin (Hache), handles the material with skill and intelligence and, while the dialogue often sounds like tedious psychodrama, impeccable performances by Luppi and Roth make Martin extremely watchable.
Juan Diego Botto is Martin's son, known as Hache (Junior) or Jay in the English subtitles. Though quite intelligent, Jay does not work or go to school and his only interest seems to be playing the guitar. Feeling unwanted by both parents, rejected by his girlfriend, and thinking that he has let his father down by underachieving, he resorts to a potentially lethal combination of drugs and booze that almost end his young life. Martin is persuaded by his ex-wife to take Jay back to Madrid though he is leery of having to once again assume the responsibilities of fatherhood.
Taking on a new project, he soon leaves for the south of Spain to find film locations, leaving Jay with Dante and his girlfriend Alicia, both heavy drug users. Soon, Dante and Alicia meet Martin at a seaside resort, hoping for a new sense of intimacy. It is soon clear that not much has changed. Martin refuses to give of himself, distancing the people around him with outbursts of anger and cynicism and the result leads to tragedy. The conclusion, however, is a bittersweet reminder that transformation can come instantly once difficult choices are faced.
Juan Diego Botto is Martin's son, known as Hache (Junior) or Jay in the English subtitles. Though quite intelligent, Jay does not work or go to school and his only interest seems to be playing the guitar. Feeling unwanted by both parents, rejected by his girlfriend, and thinking that he has let his father down by underachieving, he resorts to a potentially lethal combination of drugs and booze that almost end his young life. Martin is persuaded by his ex-wife to take Jay back to Madrid though he is leery of having to once again assume the responsibilities of fatherhood.
Taking on a new project, he soon leaves for the south of Spain to find film locations, leaving Jay with Dante and his girlfriend Alicia, both heavy drug users. Soon, Dante and Alicia meet Martin at a seaside resort, hoping for a new sense of intimacy. It is soon clear that not much has changed. Martin refuses to give of himself, distancing the people around him with outbursts of anger and cynicism and the result leads to tragedy. The conclusion, however, is a bittersweet reminder that transformation can come instantly once difficult choices are faced.