Puerto Escondido

An Italian film that goes from Milan to Mexico. Mario works at a bank. His life is orderly, dull and undisturbed. One night he witnesses a murder and sees who the killer is. That knowledge makes him a target. He can trust nobody; going to the police is no solution either. Mario leaves the country. He goes as far as his money takes him and stops at a town on the Mexican coast called Puerto Escondido. There he meets two people: a couple living on the beach with no work at all. The three start living together and all of Mario's habits come apart. Where the film goes is not the escape but what happens after it. Mario starts to like the new life, but the man after him has not closed the matter. The narrative comes from the same vein as the Italian generational films of the late 1980s and early 1990s: leaving the country, starting again somewhere else and whether that is possible. The source is Pino Cacucci's novel. Diego Abatantuono, Valeria Golino and Claudio Bisio are in the cast. Abatantuono took the best actor prize in Italy for the part, and the supporting award went to the same film. Gabriele Salvatores directed. An enjoyable choice for anyone who likes road films and Italian cinema. For a viewer expecting a tight thriller, the film drops its pace in the middle and shifts into a holiday.