“SIMON, EL GRAN VARON”–possibility wasted

“Simon, el Gran Varon”

Possibility Wasted

Amos Lassen

Sometimes when I sit down to watch a movie, I tell myself that I am really going to like it and the majority of the times I find myself liking something that I never thought I would care for. Unfortunately this was not the case with the Mexican film, “Simon, el Gran Varon”. There was a lot going for the film but for some reason it did mot all come together. The story had great possibilities but it just never got off of the ground.

Simon is the first-born so of a wealthy Mexican businessman and his father, Don Andreas dotes on him. However as Simon grows older, he becomes fond of dressing up in women’s clothing and playing with dolls. Don Andreas banishes him from the family home and disinherits him and Simon takes to the streets until he finds work as a nightclub performer and it just so happens that his father is a regular at that club. Don Andreas does not recognize his son when he appears as a beautiful young woman and this forces him to disclose some of his own secrets.

The movie attempts to show the hardships of a gay boy having to deal with his father’s expectations of being the type of man he wants him to be. The movie could have been such a sensitive study but instead it is played as a soap opera. Both the acting and the production quality are really bad. There is n semblance of sensitivity here and the entire film comes across as a waste of time.