Mark Reviews Movies: EL ÁNGEL

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Review by Mark Dujsik | November 8, 2018

The real Carlos Robledo Puch looked like a young teenager when he was arrested in 1972, at the age of 20. He remains in prison to this day, after being convicted of multiple counts of murder and robbery, as well as a few counts of sexual violence and a couple counts of kidnapping. His curly, golden locks are probably gray or gone by now, but when he was going about his crime spree, people probably noticed the hair and his youthful appearance, without giving a second thought about what might be going on in the mind beneath those curls and behind that face.

In co-writer/director Luis Ortega's El Ángel, a fictionalized account of Robledo Puch's year-long career as a professional thief and serial killer, there's a brief shot of a young woman, looking on in near rapturous excitement, as Carlos (Lorenzo Ferro) is being transported in handcuffs by the police. By this time, that woman knows what this young man has done, but it doesn't matter. Some people look at a young and pretty face, highlighted by golden curls, and don't want to see anything else.

The film itself, rather daringly, observes Carlos in a similar manner. That's not because it glosses over what the real Robledo Puch did (although it does spare us many of the crimes and most of the details of the killings). Neither is it because the movie looks at him with some sort of twisted admiration or provides him with some understandable rationale for his crimes. Ortega more or less takes Carlos' perspective in establishing the tone and telling of the murderer-thief's story. It looks at him and his actions without judgment, because Carlos never considers judging himself or his actions.

If he possesses any feelings about his crimes, they are mostly of the egotistical variety. He is good at what does—a "natural-born thief"—and, because of that and his easy-going manner and good looks, deserves to keep doing it.

In his mind, he's entitled to rob and kill. For him, there is never any doubt or second thought about this fact. It's as guaranteed as the reality of women and some men staring at him, with longing in their hearts or some other part of the body.

We get a sense of this entitlement immediately, as Carlos narrates the fundamentals of his past before embarking on his crime spree. He was the unexpected son of parents (played by Cecilia Roth and Luis Gnecco) who desperately wanted a child. His mother called him her "angel," and there are no signs of any problems at home. Carlos' mother adores and worries about him, and his father only gives the kind of pressure that any father would give to a child for whom he wants the best. They provide for Carlos, seemingly have given their son a normal upbringing, and have tried to impart some basic values on him.

Even so, he has troubles at school and spends his time out of classes stealing from houses in his hometown of Buenos Aires. He doesn't do it for profit. If he steals a car, he parks it with the keys in the ignition for someone else to take. Almost everything else he steals is given away to other people, as a means of getting in their good graces.

That's the case with Ramón (Chino Darín), a classmate who turns from bully to friend after Carlos gives Ramón a record that he has stolen. Learning about his new friend's strange hobby, Ramón introduces Carlos to his father José (Daniel Fanego), an ex-convict who's looking to get back into the game. Their first robbery is stealing weapons from a gun store. Carlos takes so many pistols and rifles that they're stacked upon each other across the entirety of Ramón's family's dining table. The men are impressed. Ramón's mother Ana María (Mercedes Morán) offers sex to Carlos, who refuses because he likes her husband.

This might seem honorable, but one wonders if a concept like honor even equates in Carlos' thought processes. Something similar happens later, after Carlos and Ramón set off as a pair in crime. They connect with a local fence, and while in his home, filled with expensive (and likely stolen) things, Ramón steals from their new accomplice. Carlos didn't, because the man asked him not to do so. Like José, this man is too valuable to Carlos' work to risk damaging that relationship.

All of his victims, though, are nothing but obstacles to him. The first person he kills is an elderly man who comes downstairs to discover his house being robbed. Carlos shoots him, almost out of the shock of hearing another person in the house, and, with a curious look, merely follows the wounded man as he finds a place to die. Other victims include two men who are sleeping in the backroom of a restaurant, because one of them insulted Ramón. Killing has no effect on Carlos, and soon enough, some of his partners in crime start to look like obstacles.

One of the more intentionally confounding aspects of Sergio Olguín, Ortega, and Rodolfo Palacios' screenplay is that of Carlos' sexuality. A cursory observation might make one believe he's equally attracted to women and men (He's dating a young woman at the story's start and, later, seems to have an intense desire for Ramón), but this would assume that he thinks with any clarity on the issue.

The whole point is that Carlos is incapable of such rational thinking. His every action is about what seems best for him in the moment. The reason El Ángel is so simultaneously fascinating and terrifying is that it communicates his thinking so effectively.

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