The Curse of Father Cardona (2005)
A Catholic priest goes to a small town to solve some strange things that are happening there, things that come from the unknown, and gets involved in a romantic relationship with a young woman of the village.
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Reviews
Pretty Good
It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional
It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.
A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.
A cheeky and occasionally rude romantic comedy from the Dominican Republic, La Maldicion del Padre Cardona is a well-made effort from first time director Felix Germain. Though hardly groundbreaking stuff, the film is well written by Germain, and features a game cast headlined by Anthony Alvarez as the title character and Zoe Saldana (seen most recently in a little indie pic entitled Avatar) as the woman he falls for. In addition to an amusing exorcism sub-plot--a curse has apparently been placed on the town, and it's up to Padre Cardona to root out the evil--there's enough here to pique the interest of rom-com fans and admirers of the female form alike.
Felix Herman knows how to tell a story. The actors tell a witty story of lust, ignorance and romance with an ample dose of traditional Latin American magical realism. Zoe Saldaña has been given the chance to carry the movie and she does so with a fearless energy that marks her as an actress who is comfortable in her skin and skillful in her craft. Freddy Beras Goico has the kind of genuine sharp humor that can't be faked; Veronica Lopez is wonderful embodying the kind of dramatic small mind everybody loves to hate. The Story takes you to a place where time stopped; you could easily be in the 1940s as you could be in the 21st century. The characters and the humor are timeless. It will be interesting to see this little known genre of film-making grow so in tune with the literature that comes out of Latin America.
An exercise in poor execution and poor writing, there is nothing special to this little film which has no plot, story, meaning or anything else other than toilet humor poorly executed. I do NOT recommend this movie to anyone who considers themselves as a thinking human being, its just a painful experience that has no sense, there is no way you can understand this movie, is just senseless in all ways.Bad writing, bad directing, bad acting(some not all), bad editing, bad sound effects (cartoonish unfunny).On the good part Zoe Zaldana is delicious in this, Freddy Beras is very funny, Sergio Carlo is OK, Anthony Alvarez is OK, And Koldo is very good! Also the cinematography is good, but thats about it.Its a shame the waste of money and good talent that this "Director" did, a crying shame!
I just saw this movie while in the Dominican Republic (last week)and I was very pleased. Dominican movies are gaining quality! I hope they bring it to the US soon. I will definitely see it again. The movie is very funny, and Zoe is absolutely great, not to mention beautiful in the movie. I am so used to see Zoe in English movies and to hear her speak perfect (Dominican) Spanish was a great surprise. The movie also shows a lot of the very own culture of the Dominican countryside. The actors portray their characters very well, and the whole setting is perfect. It really brings out the essence of a Dominican small town and the beliefs of the people. They did a great job! Anyone who wants to laugh should go see this movie.