ARISTOTLE AND DANTE DISCOVER THE SECRETS OF THE UNIVERSE

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, Blue Fox Entertainment

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Review by Mark Dujsik | September 7, 2023

Two teenage boys meet by chance or maybe destiny, and each one changes the other's life. That's the simple premise of the grandly titled Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, and apart from the fact that this story's ultimate conclusion starts to feel like a routine inevitability pretty quickly, there's something off in the perspective of writer/director Aitch Alberto's movie.

The issue, perhaps, is that this adaptation of Benjamin Alire Sáenz's novel possesses only one point of view, when two clearly exist in this tale. Whether that choice comes from the source material or is part of Alberto's transformation of the book to the screen is irrelevant. Either way, we're missing a vital piece of this relationship, and the absence of it turns one of these characters into more of a plot element than an actual, believable person.

That singular perspective belongs to Aristotle "Ari" Mendoza (Max Pelayo), the youngest child of a family of immigrants from Mexico, living in El Paso circa the late 1980s. He's a quiet, lonely teen, although, as with all of his feelings, Ari isn't exactly the type to communicate just how alone he feels. It's fine, though, in his mind, because he doesn't particularly like his peers at school, who gossip and insult and are obsessed with popularity. He gets by, avoiding talks about fitting in with his mother Liliana (Veronica Falcón) and any conversation with his even-quieter father Jaime (Eugenio Derbez).

We learn a lot about Ari, since the story is narrated by him and the camera rarely, if ever, leaves him or his direct perspective throughout the movie. He's afraid of becoming too much like his father, a man who just seems as lost and solitary as a person can be, but the alternative of having to pretend to be someone he isn't in order to fit in with people he finds irritating would be worse.

Enter Dante Quintana (Reese Gonzales), who sits on the side of the pool after Ari, who doesn't know how to swim, jumps in the water. Watching and waiting for this boy who clearly doesn't know what he's doing, Dante offer to teach Ari how to swim, and the two laugh about the coincidence that they both have such pretentious names.

Dante has an excuse, since his father Sam (Kevin Alejandro) is an academic. Ari has never really considered why his working-class dad would choose the name of a Greek philosopher for his youngest child, and if there is a benefit to the decision to stick so closely to Ari, it's that Alberto is able to hint at more about Jaime than Ari has ever contemplated, while showing how that mutual silence prevents both father and son from actually talking about the things that matter.

There is a lot going on here, in other words, despite the movie's insulated viewpoint. The narrow focus, though, also leaves us wondering just how much more the movie could be doing, if it were even just a little more generous with its attention toward and care for the other eponymous character in this tale.

It is about a pair of friends, after all, who get to know each other over the course of a few months, spend a lot of time swimming and walking together and talking about whatever might come to mind, and survive a potentially fatal car accident together, after Dante runs into the middle of the road on a rainy night to save a struggling bird. Dante and Ari are very much opposites, in that the former is more open about his feelings and has an optimistic view of the world and the people within it. Once one figures out that there's a bit more to Dante than his sensitive nature and thoughtful way of speaking, the character winds up looking like little more than a cliché.

He deserves better by way of the movie, and indeed, this relationship, which becomes one of exchanged letters after Dante and his parents (Eva Longoria plays the attentive, caring, and worrying mother) move to Chicago for the summer, deserves a bit more, too. While apart, Dante writes about discovering feelings he hadn't really considered until this point, and Ari becomes more confident, more curious about life outside his own head, and angrier about things in general, for reasons he can't determine.

Maybe, it has to do with his older brother, who is in prison and about whom his family never speaks. Perhaps, it's because a new girl (played by Luna Blaise) at school is sending him mixed messages. It might, though, have to do with feelings similar to the ones Dante is uncovering, but as with everything else, Ari doesn't want to talk about those.

There is a touching story about these two characters, how they connect in a way that neither anticipates, and how the underlying truth of that bond starts to come between them. However, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe becomes inherently limited by its exclusive perspective and even more so by the limitations of that character, especially in terms of what he's not willing to say—until, it seems, the story requires it. Something that important shouldn't feel like a surprise, but within this movie's restrictive scope, it does. Yes, these characters, especially Dante, and this relationship deserve more than that.

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