Rosario Tijeras (2005) User Reviews

Promising Beginning of a Messy and Dull Soap-Opera

[claudio_carvalho · 5/10 · 5 November 2008]

In 1989, in Medellin, the prostitute and killer Rosario Tijeras (Flora Martínez) has an affair with the playboy Emilio (Manolo Cardona) and is introduced to his best friend Antonio (Unax Ugalde) in a night-club. The relationship of Rosario with Emilio is limited to sex and she befriends Antonio, who is in love with her. After the death of her brother Jonhefe (Rodrigo Oviedo), Rosario and Antonio become closer and she falls in love for him. But Rosario is chased by her enemies from the past.

I had a great expectation for this movie based on the awards highlighted on the cover of the DVD but after watching it, it became a huge disappointment. The plot has a promising beginning, mostly because of the erotic scenes with the sexy Flora Martínez and her naked body. Her mysterious character is intriguing in the beginning. However, the dull story goes nowhere and I had trouble to write a summary since nothing happens but a silly triangle of love in the landscape of the underworld of Medellin in a messy soap-opera. The characters are awfully developed: for example, Rosario Tijeras is one of the most ambiguous characters I have ever seen. Is she an expensive prostitute and a killer, and also a drug-dealer or what? Where is her money charging large amounts for sex and murders? She seems to be a powerful and cold woman in the beginning, but she is disclosed extremely fragile like a housewife along the story. Is the upper-class Emilio just a playboy? And who is Antonio? Why are these guys connected to the underworld of drugs? The celebration with the dead body of Jonhefe is funny but totally out of the context. The dinner at Emilio's home is another terrible moment of this forgettable flick. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Rosario Tijeras"

Slow-paced, repetitive rendering of a decent story

[bodomo · 5/10 · 6 June 2008]

This movie has an interesting, albeit somewhat formulaic, film-noir story as its foundation.

However, the movie ended up being too tedious to watch because of the excessively long segments devoted to hammering the same message time and again.

For instance, the wake and burial of one of the characters includes some creative twists---but ends up taking ~40 minutes of the film, so long before it moves on people in the audience start checking their watches.

This could have been of "City of god" caliber, but will never be. I'm not sure why it reached such a cult status in Colombia.

Love, hit-woman style

[lastliberal · 7/10 · 11 April 2007]

This was a really good Columbian film that starred Flora Martínez (Proof of Life) as a hit-woman who falls in love. That sounds like a formulaic movie that has been made a thousand times, but Martinez really brings home the film in a way that will keep you watching.

I don't know much about Columbia, but i was really fascinated with the celebration of death before the funeral of Jonhefe. They borough him to the bar and sat him in a chair and had a party, including a lap dance for the dead man. Makes it kind of a grind house film, but it was a film about love and loss.

It's worth a look just to see Martinez.

La Chimba

[jfp-5 · 26 January 2006]

The movie is one of the best made Colombian Films I have ever seen. I have seen many Colombian films and this one is up there with the best. The sound, cinematography and detail is great and refreshing since most Colombian films suffer from lack of this elements sometimes. Flora and the guys performances are phenomenal, their accent is not very good (Manolo Cardona's is the closest) so if you know the accent of that region really well, it turns you off a bit. But still is a great, exaggerated adaptation of the book. The way they show certain strong moments of the story with such subtlety was beautiful. My only complaint(small one) is the music...they play late 90s sounding tech no which was not the music of 1989. If you want to see other recent Colombian films, I suggest: "El Rey", "Perder es Cuestion De Metodo", "El Baul Rosado", "La Sombra del Caminante" which came out in the last 2 years. I am very proud of this product as a fellow COlombian

Good movie, but could have been a bit better

[joostverduin · 7/10 · 11 September 2005]

Just saw this movie in Buga, Colombia. Not being a native speaker it was a bit hard for me to understand all the dialogues - especially the street slang of the hired killers. In my opinion Unax Ugalde did a very good acting job, but then again I didn't notice his poor paisa accent. The first part really was excellent. I loved the way the movie jumped back and forward in time, which added greatly to the suspension. It's a pity that the movie seemed to loose some of its direction in the second half. Still a memorable picture, and hopefully it'll get the international distribution it deserves. Does anybody know if there's a release planned in Europe or elsewhere?

Well made but not impressive

[TdSmth5 · 6/10 · 11 July 2008]

I haven't read to book so I'm just reviewing this movie as its own independent piece.

The story is not told in a linear fashion, instead it moves back and forth between several episodes and sometimes it is not clear when something took place.

We first see a guy bringing a bloody girl to a hospital, his shirt is also drenched in blood. Then we are taken to earlier times when some playboy guy (Emilio) who gets all the girls walks into a club and meets up with his buddy Antonio, who's the nice guy and doesn't get any. While trying to avoid the chicks after him, Emilio spots a girl, Rosario, dancing seductively on the floor. She then disappears upstairs in the VIP section. Emilio makes it his goal to get her. At some other time, he sees her again and dances with her, and they hook up, so to speak. And then some strange role reversal takes place. He doesn't just want sex with her, he wants to know her. She in turn, is interested only is casual sex with him and tells him that it's better for him to know nothing about her. He think they are somewhat of a couple, she doesn't.

It all seems simple so far, she's a drug-using escort/prostitute and guy falls for her and wants her to himself. Then there's a shooting in the club and she drags him out. Later we rewind and see how the shooting happened and why. She shot some low class guy because she wanted respect. So there's more to this girl than we thought. She is from the lower socioeconomical classes but her activities at the club allow her to move up. Emilio on the other hand is upper class and he takes her to meet his snobby family and that ends up pretty bad.

So far so good. Then, or rather, earlier in the story, we meet some of the people Rosario hangs out with who are "sicarios"- killers, thugs, who kept the city of Medellin on the edge in the past, and who often did drive-by shootings. In this case this fellow, who is related to Rosario, apparently a brother of hers, commits a motorcycle drive-by. At some point later, he gets himself shot and the family/friends mourns him like some saint. In what is the most surprising original and bizarrely funny part of the movie, Rosario wants him to go out with a bang. They drag the corpse to a club giving it booze and have it get a full nude lapdance. Eventually they bury the casket Mariachi music, shots fired and all. Why this is so important in the movie is not clear. We don't know much about her family other than an early hint at her perhaps being the victim of abuse by her father? Far later in the movie she confront her mother about that.

From here things go downhill. Her relationship with Emilio completely fades into the background. She gets closer to Antonio as her life spirals out of control in violence. At the mass for the death of her brother's killer, she shows up and fills the corpse with bullets. She kills some judge / lover who was protecting her and as result ends up hiding in a country farm with Antonio.

Eventually the police grab her. Once she's out of jail she makes arrangements to meet Antonio at the club. But some thug gets to her first. And now we are back at the beginning and know how she got shot.

I'm not convinced the back and forth between the present and various pasts worked out so well. In fact, I'm not sure there's much of a story here. No doubt, movies with far less script have been made. It's just that what is missing here is something to keep the audience interested or someone for the audience to care for. The climax is the story is lost in the time shuffle. I think the fact that she's a violent criminal while appearing as a high class whore would have made for a more effective twist in the movie. Why the whole story line with Emilio? He becomes irrelevant rather quickly.

The movie is long and rather depressing and surprisingly unfunny for a Colombian movie. There is no colorful funny character even though we are dealing here with a couple of street-wise characters. Rosario's brother could have been such a character but he gets most screen time once he's dead and is not likable while alive. Rosario, too, during her good times is somewhat on the depressed side, except when she's on some chain-smoking powertrip. Perhaps she imagines that there are few ways out of her life.

Technically, this movie is excellent: the sound, the cinematography, it's all first rate work. I just think that the director's vision for the story didn't work. Perhaps that's how the book is as well. In any case, there was material here to work it into a good action drama movie with a twist. But instead we have an ambitious movie with a story that is butchered by the non-linear telling with a whole lot of dull characters.

Coke, guns, and soap opera

[Jolly_Judas · 1/10 · 8 July 2007]

I knew close to nothing about the movie, when I decided to see it, so I didn't have any particular expectations. Thank God, because the disappointment was easier to bear.

Let's start with the most important aspect: the story. It's a drama. A true drama that anyone can create something so dull and uninspiring. What we get is a beautiful girl from a rough neighborhood, who earns her living as a prostitute and a killer. Wow! What a mix! I believe that was supposed to make the protagonist more ambiguous. The only person that cares about Rosario (and Rosario cares about) is her brother. They share an apartment, and he occasionally acts as her pimp. Cute. This unconventional young woman attracts the attention of two upper-class boys. Will their friendship survive this test? Will Rosario find happiness with either of them? You get the idea, right? Basically, Marcelo Figueras feeds us with an indigestible soap opera, spiced up with some coke, booze, nudity, and a few more or less random killings. The biggest problem is that it's a love story, and it's hard to find a love story interesting, when you totally don't care about the characters.

With such a pathetic material, the rest of the crew couldn't do much to turn the flick into something watchable. So they didn't try. The directing is very uneven, with some pretty good scenes, as well as the whole funeral sequence, which unintentionally turned out quite funny, and the dinner at Emilio's house, which was just unbearably bad.

The editing comes on par with the screenplay. The transition between the sequences is so smooth as a sand paper. Maybe that was supposed to give the movie a more documentary feeling, but it just made it still harder to watch.

Now, the acting. The miserably boring story was a challenge that no actor could have come up to. No-one could have played those characters in a way that would appeal to the audience. Even the greatest artist had to fail in this particular case.

To sum up, the main reason for the review is to help me release the unendurable frustration caused by watching "Rosario Tijeras". I was very angry with myself for spending time and money on the flick and I really had to do something about it. Unless you're a hard core fan of the book (maybe it's good, I don't know, I didn't read it) or an upper-class young man with a crush on a murderous prostitute, stay away from the movie!

Just waiting for the DVD

[daidreemer3 · 9/10 · 15 September 2005]

I went to go see this movie this summer in my visit to Colombia. I was completely under the movie's spell, went to see it twice. The character is so raw, so corrupted, but they demonstrate the beauty that can come from someone who's lived in her own hell. My family is originally from Colombia, so I understand the situations well. I saw a comment on a message board here saying that she wasn't a convincing hit-man...obviously you aren't familiar with the situations in Colombia, I've known of many female hit men that were beautiful...they just grew up in the wrong neighborhoods. Beauty isn't only found in the high-class society...it's everywhere, and if anything, her beauty gives her even more power. The fact that the movie goes back and forth, always returning the beginning of everything, and relating it to the end keeps you in tuned, its clever that the director chose not to point out the changes in time throughout the film...it keeps it flowing...no interruptions from the world that this movie has sucked you in. The main character has such a beautiful pain within her, you come out of the theater in love with her...whether you're are a man or woman..she'll dazzle you. The actors in this movie did an incredible job as well.

Overall, this movie mixes the drama of life, and laughs at it at some points. You're guaranteed to cry, laugh, gasp, claw your nails in your seat...and come out replaying all the scenes in your head.

Soapy?

[OpinionatedJM · 5/10 · 20 December 2006]

Could have been better.

It was like watching a glorified soap opera with the added bonus of nudity.

I felt somethings were overdone because of the lack of an intriguing plot, for example the back and forth in time felt more as a Deus ex machina to pull things along, I must say there were a couple scenes that will stick with me so it's not THAT bad, I just don't see what the hype is about except for the hot woman with fake tits which don't look half bad the way she carries them, there is an interesting play of characters but I feel maybe too flat, I'm not sure what it is that is missing.

Superb drama and an astonishing actress

[juanmlleras · 9/10 · 15 September 2005]

In MHO this is probably the best film shot in Colombia to date. This film excels primarily due to the electrifying performance of the Colombian actress Flora Martinez in the role of Rosario Tijeras, a young and dangerous girl that works as a hit-woman to the Medellin drug cartel in the late 1980's.

Not only does the beautiful and talented Ms. Martinez realistically portraits the tormented girl that always gives a kiss before shooting to death his victims, but the rest of the cast gives a highly convincing performance. I didn't blink seeing the picture and neither will you....

Spanish actor Unax Ugalde gives an excellent performance as Antonio, the only pure soul to come close to the star-crossed Rosario. Some failings in pronouncing the local 'paisa' accent of Medellin, IMHO, doesn't in any way diminish his convincing performance.

Colombian actor Manolo Cardona, acting as Rosario's boyfriend Emilio, did also a very powerful performance, although he doesn't reach his co-stars levels.

Equally convincing are the performances of Mexican actor Rodrigo Oviedo as the hit-man Johnefe, Rosario's brother, and of Colombian actor Alonso Arias as the dangerous Rosario's former boyfriend Ferney.

The Mexican director Emilio Maillé did a very good job in this, his first full length feature film. Congratulations! The Marcelo Figueras's adapted script from the original novel by Jorge Franco maintains all the elements of this tale which will become part of Latin America's mythology. In my opinion, the Figueras's script clears some blind spots of the book

Filmed on location in Medellin, including the old living quarters of the henchmen of the Medellin drug cartel, this Mexican-American-Colombian production never looses pace in a frantic and crude vertigo of sex, drugs, tragedy, and violence.

Don't miss it!

Horrible

[rojanprovidercredentialing · 1/10 · 18 June 2022]

In season 3 I hated Rosario character. The whole season she was a hypocrite, Selfish, liar, double standards and was always in love with any man who would tell what she wanted to hear.

Rosario Tijeras

[jorba60 · 10/10 · 25 September 2005]

"Very good film". After it to have seen 4 times I believe that I can give a commentary on the matter. Film based on the work "ROSARIO TIJERAS" of Jorge Franco. A woman of low class in Medellín - Colombia in 1989 tells the history of Rosario, in the heat of apogee of "Pablo Escobar". Rosario is a young woman who has had many traumas in her childhood, and all that influence of its JhonF brother and his circulate social: Communes of Medellin (a sector of Medellín of invasion in which there is much violence), takes them very noticeable in her. Rosario is killer, aggressive, dominant and has had many men, but at the same time she is sentimental and tender with whom it wants. On the other hand, Antonio and Emilio are inseparable friends of high class who know themselves from children. The ideology of Antonio front to the love is seen very noticeable; then it has the ideal of a perfect love that transfers the barriers until contemplating to give the life by Rosario. Antonio is timid, sentimental and a little introvert. In spite of being "paisa" and to be influenced by a cultural current "Machista"; Antonio is all the opposite.

Emilio is a little dominant, is brave, dangerous, and most of the time he has luck. Also he is very "mujeriego"(he had so much women) until Rosario arrives that returns it totally crazy. "All become crazy by Rosario". These different personalities Intercross in a fascinating history of action, drama, love, pain and death.

OPINION:

This film is spectacular. The way in which they worked in the details surprised to me. Details like the color of the nails, the earrings with letter "R" of Rosario, the clocks, the light, the necklaces, the handle of leather that always took Rosario in its left arm to cover its scars, the Cédulas(document of identity) old, the dollar in which Emilio took the drug, the oration that said JhonF before going to make its work, the makeup, the motorcycle old in which Emilio and Rosario went to speed, the aquarium in the Bar, the hour of the clock in the hospital, music, the atmosphere, the representation of San Gregorio(Doctor Sant), etc. And the subjects work them of excellent way like for example the naked ones, the religion in relation to the killers, the social classes, the murder, the pain, and the violation, was impeccable the representation with the fried egg. I believe that no other actress had served for this paper like Flora Martinez did it. That is worth the trouble to see Colombian cinema, although in fact it has really been Colombian-Mexican production.

COMPARISON BOOK/MOVIE:

The film definitively has many differences with respect to the book, in spite of being based on this.

1) In the film, JhonF gave a necklace to him to Antonio. And Antonio gave it to Rosario before they buried to JhonF. By the opposite in the book it does after they bury it.

2) In the film, Ferney killed Rosario. On the other hand in the Ferney book it died before Rosario.

3) In the film Rosario it has the white skin. In contradiction, in the book to her they describe of skin cinnamon to it.

4) In the book, JhonF orders to Antonio that takes care of of Rosario and soon it kisses it on the mouth. Whereas in the film they omit the kiss.

5) In the film it spent almost 1 year so that Rosario and Antonio will be re-find again themselves. On the other hand in the book they happened more than 3 years.

6) In the film, Antonio knew where it was left the house of Doña Ruby because it was accompanying to Rosario when JhonF died, whereas in the book nobody knew where Doña Ruby lived.

7) In the film the hour of the clock is: 3:30, and in book 4:30. * It could continue with many more comparisons but there is no sufficient space.

CLOTHES

The clothes do not fit with the time. Then in 1989 still they were not used "Jeans Descaderados" and Rosario uses many of these.

PUBLICITY

Within the film there is very violent publicity of the beer "Pilsen", appears in two takings: 1) When JhonF goes in motorcycles it appears a truck that takes the logo of Pilsen. 2) When Antonio arrives at a house to the outskirts where this being left Rosario it takes in the hand a box of the same beer. Also it is possible to be said that that beer did not exist at the time at which history is developed. Publicity to "COLOMBIANA" soda water can be observed in addition that by the certain thing I am very well because the package is old.

FILLINGS And INTERFERENCES

Definitively I leave much to be desired the paper of Catalina Aristizabal (Creta); then she was the annoying friend of Emilio.

CONCLUSION

The film "ROSARIO TIJERAS" is very good, I recommend them. I recommend to them that if they are going it to see, read the first book, or the contrary. As for me hardly that leaves the original DVD I will buy it.

** ANNOTATIONS **

*Paisa: person of the interior of Colombia that is located from Antioquia to the Eje Cafetero(sector of Colombia). *Machista: masculine current that tries to demonstrate the power of the man on the woman. *Mujeriego: that it has many women.

BY: JORGE BARROS E-MAIL: jorba60@hotmail.

It's harder to love than killing

[alediazvelez30 · 9/10 · 6 April 2010]

I live in Medellin, Colombia and i believe this movie truly portraits the reality of many young women in our country, of course this is not in every city or in all Medellin, there is more to Colombia that you see in this movie, it's not all wars, etc. It's a great movie which in my opinion is a good representation of Jorge Franco's book, which is great by the way. It shows not only a reality of Colombian women but of people across the world, who live in their own hells. It's a movie that not only talks about wars, drugs, poverty, etc. but about feelings, about love and hatred and how the books says "amar es mas difícil que matar" it means to love is harder than killing. It is very entertaining and Flora Martinez does a great job, Rosario is what she shoes...beauty, strength, weaknesses. A very interesting character.

Not as good as the book but you must watch it.

[franklealt · 9/10 · 2 September 2005]

Rosario is the personification of the girl from the low barrios of Medellín-Colombia (ej. Comuna nor-oriental). Rosario is the kind of girl who knows how to survive the world where she was born, places of violence and drugs and basically no love, until she's given the same poison she use to give. Flora Martinez characterizes Rosario in a wonderful way. Some things that don't go well with this film are the coincidence in musical theme with Maria full of grace and some repeated scenes in car over the same bridge. However, I recommend you read Jorge Franco's original book where this movie was adapted from (www.jorge-franco.com). This is the best Colombian movie since Maria full of grace.

Some comments (High Spoilers)

[YashiroTCM · 9/10 · 16 April 2006]

1.- The entire death & burial part was highly shocking and touching, who would of thought of them taking the corpse to the bar and celebrate the way they did, simply impressive.

2.- What Rosario said is so true "Tu eres bueno, y los que son buenos sufren mucho" (You are a good guy and the ones who are good suffer a lot). This really reached my very nerve.

3.- The Entire acting was Fabulous, most Colombian movies should be like this.

4.- A question. Why did Jonhefe killed her in the end?, Was he in love with her too? Regards

Quite a movie!!

[Bass9987 · 8/10 · 21 August 2005]

This movie was released first in Colombia because it's based in an excellent Colombian book, the movie shows us a Medellin (Colombia) of the 80's, and although you see some holes that are fulfilled if you ever read the book, you'll also love it because it's so well done, that you'll never yawn even once; the performance of the actors is awesome (except the one of Unax Ugalde he has to make a paisa accent and he really sucks on it), but above all the cast, the best is Flora Martinez, she plays a sexy deadly woman, who kills for money and kisses them before shooting them while plays with the heart of two men, who happen to be best friends, anyway is a very good movie and the rest of Latin America and US will be able to enjoy it next year, I hope you watch and enjoy it as much as I did.

Ps: Paisa is like a southern accent around here, I don't know if you've ever heard an interview of Juanes, if you have that's a paisa accent!!!

Very good, hard-hitting

[SpanOws · 8/10 · 1 June 2006]

Really enjoyed the movie, which is a hard-hitting tale of drugs sex and death in 1980's Colombia. It is all shot in what appears to be the actual locations in the streets and poor barrios of Medellin and acting by all the actors is very good and realistic, the music brings back many good memories and although the film is extremely drug and sex orientated it continues on a, reasonably easy to follow, central theme with great flashbacks etc to relate the story. Flora Martinez is superb...and very, very sexy! :-) I hadn't heard of this film before and I see that the original comments were in 2005, it has just been released (not sure if it is limited or general release) in Spain (I'm in Barcelona) but it is well worth going to see - not for children or those of a weak disposition! ;-)

a good Latin movie to indulge in!!!

[bbro3886 · 8/10 · 12 September 2006]

I was watching this movie the other day... A friend of mine gave it to me from a screening of this movie that took place in Colombia... and I gotta say.. its quite a packer!!!! It tells the story of a woman who kills for hire.... Rosario Tijeras. Rosario Tijeras is a story of the world of assassins, life in Colombia, love and lust. Rosario is an assassin... she is surrounded by lust, and when she meets a guy thats different from all that have been in her life, she falls in love with him... but she is too deep into the dirty underworld and it might just be too late for her... What I like about this movie its that sometimes its funny in an

overdramatized funny macabre kind of way. For example when Rosario's brother gets killed, they throw a party for/with him.... his corpse anyway...... go rolling with him, even take him to have a lap dance..... but thats the life he lead and so thats his friends way to pay respect to their fallen friend. Overall this is a good movie to watch if you like action/drama movies...... kinda reminds me of City of God... the way the story was told thru flashbacks... although in City of God the flashbacks were over many years and in Rosatio Tijeras, its meer months in between...... and also City Of God is way better than this one. Take nothing away from this one... the director did a good job in this movie, although it sometimes can be a little confusing, its one of the better Spanish movies that have come out in some time... a good Latin movie to indulge in!!! I give it an 8 out of 10

If you actually know anything about south American culture....

[millosfalcao9 · 10/10 · 4 October 2008]

Well I can see how my Polish counterpart can fail to see the feats of a film like this. He is completely clueless to a culture such as the one presented in this film. Sure maybe for a pole it might be dull and boring to sit through an entire movie with subtitles, but why butcher the film? It has everything you could want in a film. I just find his criticisms of "stale acting" and "bad directing" completely dumbfounded.Fortunately this guy isn't part of award committees. This movie is for a mature audience and I would highly recommend it for those who have an open minded appetite. It has Action, a good story line correlating with a factual time period (not events) and a love story. Everything essential in an film.

Nikita meets Scarface

[searchanddestroy-1 · 9/10 · 1 July 2022]

From Colombia, this is a pure latino hot, brutal, bloody, crime drama, not thriller, where two friends get involved with the same girl; and not any girl, but a real time bomb: sexy, deadly as lethal as the most venomous snake. Specific atmosphere of Latin culture with unfortunately too many lengths that prevent the audiences to fully appreciate this movie. Thirty minutes less would have been perfect. Could easily have been a series, far better than QUEEN OF THE SOUTH. The female lead, despite her violent character, is gripping in her performance. It is not a soap opera, even a mafia one, it is too realistic, gritty, raw, fierce to be destined to large audiences, as MONEY HEIST crap - also from Spanish culture - is. I repeat, the only weak point is the length and pace. But good characters and actors performances save the whole.