Show The Mil Mi Milagro ag agro ra Be Beanfield a n fi e I Id d A c Ji I By Mike Richan Theres There's been a good deal of prerelease prerelease prerelease pre pre- release press on this film from Robert Redford mostly concerning production and delays It was supposed supposed supposed sup sup- posed to be out last year but the release date kept getting pushed back now Milagro has arrived and unfortunately is not worth the extra wait It is also not worth the thousands of dollars that must have been spent trying to save this picture in the editing room This film is an example of a potentially wonderful picture that gets bogged down by technical mistakes of film film- making The story is a simple one about an farmer who illegally il illegally illegally il- il legally diverts water to irrigate a beanfield The water is stolen from froma a business tycoon intent on making condos and golf courses out of the small town of Milagro The war and the lengths to which people will go over such a small thing is an interesting premise salted sal sal- ted by John Nichols based on his novel However the war itself is not as interesting as the people of Milagro The town is filled with eccentric eccentric eccentric ec ec- ec- ec centric and humorous characters It is when the film is dealing with townspeople that it is charming and delightful When the storyline returns to the war the entire film seems to speed up to get the story in before times up The horrendous horrendous horrendous horren horren- dous editing that must have oc- oc cured during simple one-on-one one dialogue scenes and outrageous overdubbing supplies a jerky unsure unsure unsure un un- un- un sure feeling as though Redford took a look at what hed he'd shot knew hed he'd already stretched the schedule to its it's limits and went about trying to patch it up in post- post production The final result is this a picture that is entertaining and in involving involving involving in- in but youre you're occasionally ripped out of the story and the action action action ac ac- ac- ac tion by technical mistakes and filmmaking filmmaking filmmaking film film- making of the story and the action by technical mistakes and filmmaking ing one would expect better from Redford whose Ordinary Ordinary Ordinary Or People walked away with Oscars including one for himself This is not to say that there arent aren't elements of the film which work quite well Redford is quick to display the beautiful New Mexican scenery and it is impressive There are also wonderful performances from Ruben Blades John Heard Daniel Stern and Christopher Sonia Braga does well wen playing an activist intent on keeping keeping keeping keep keep- ing the developers out though most of her scenes contain the aforementioned overdubbing and distractive editing problems Aside from the jerky execution John Nichols Nichol's script succeeds especially with dialogue and character development He does however have a penchant for testicles there were reference to them at least six times during the film I believe Redford knew there were problems with this film and did his best to smooth them over but it didn't work completely The film comes off as a Southwestern Local Hero but without the affection affection affection af af- af- af for the community that Local Hero achieved through concentration on character rather that plot Milagro would be as asgood asgood asgood good of a film as that technical J problems aside had someone steered the film in that direction Unfortunately this film centers so strongly on the beanfield and the fight for what it represents that characters such as Sonia Bragas Braga's become one very quickly and there are so many characters with this rush the story handicap that they too eventually become uninteresting Finally you end up with a cast of characters you wish you could care more about |