Ants in the Mouth / Hormigas En La Boca (2005)

Hormigas en la Boca follows Martin from a 10 year stint in a Spanish prison for robbery to pre-Castro Cuba to recover the loot from his ex-girlfriend. While their he runs afoul of Navarro, a dangerously corrupt politician who happens to be married to Julia. Martin tries to recover his money and pursues Julia while trying to avoid Navarro's thugs.

I'm quite a fan of the noir genre - the lighting, the seedy side of life, the femmes fatales. Apart from the occasional film, such as 'The Man Who Wasn't There', the genre is pretty much a thing of the past.

Which brings me to 'Ants in the Mouth'. Set in the late fifties, it exploits the period atmosphere with lovely automobiles (of the kind still seen in Havana), music, fashions and so on. The attention to period detail also includes news snippets alluding to the coming communist victory on the island.

The plot is also classic 'noir' territory: an ex-con, tracking down his money and his dame, meeting a variety of hoodlums and wealthy mobsters. There are enough twists in the story to keep the viewer watching, though those familiar with the genre will already be expecting them.

So far, the film is true to its aspirations. What I think it really missed was a pair of stars with that 'spark' between them, like Bogart and Bacall, or even Mitchum and Greer. The lead actors, Eduard Fernandez and Ariadna Gil, both Catalonians, also play Catalonians in the film, so I suppose they were chosen with this in mind, and they do quite well with the material - well, just not superbly.

Overall, this is an interesting addition to the noir category. Its location and period detail are its real draw-card, with a story that is standard, and acting that is very competent, but which hardly sets the screen alight.

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