VIVA (Paddy Breathnach). Subtitled. 100 minutes. Open Friday (April 29). See Listing. Rating: NN
Viva arrives with a sizzle of novelty: set in Cuba and performed entirely in Spanish, it’s actually an Irish production, directed by Paddy Breathnach (I Went Down, Shrooms) and written by Mark O’Halloran, who scripted Lenny Abrahamson’s early films Adam & Paul and Garage.
But scratch the surface and it’s just a bog-standard indie about a son coming out to his disapproving father.
In Havana, young hustler Jesus (Héctor Medina) works as a hairdresser at a drag club, aspiring to be a performer himself. But when he finally takes the stage, his emergence as Viva is short-circuited by the reappearance of his dad, angry ex-con Angel (Jorge Perugorría).
Breathnach makes the most of the Havana locations, but O’Halloran’s script doesn’t have a single original idea, not even the characters’ names. Jesus and Angel? Yeesh.
Viva is competently produced and acted, but I’ve seen this movie a dozen times before. And so have you.
