Let's be realistic.

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

Brilliant and touching

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

It's a great title, conjuring up the idea of an assassin and his target in an intricate dance of death with each trying to outwit the other. Not so oddly, none of this occurs in the movie, and the intended assassination has nothing at all to do with the tango. It could be that as a writer and director, Robert Duvall is a much better actor. In fact, I consider him my favorite modern day actor on the strength of such films as "Open Range" and "The Judge", not to mention the 'Godfather' films he appeared in. But here he just seems out of his league in a picture that meanders around in search of a compelling story line. In particular, the circumstances surrounding the Argentinian collaborators, Orlando (Julio Mechoso) and Miguel (Ruben Blades) was handled very weakly. Their apprehension by authorities was explained after the fact by a bug in John J's (Duvall) room, but it just seemed a very lazy rationale with a noticeable lack of intrigue. Regarding the 'tango' part of the story, I thought the dancers, Luciana Pedraza as Manuela, and Geraldine Rojas as Pirucha, were exceptional in their roles, but would have better served the story if their characters weren't so passive. Maybe this could all be fixed with a re-write in which Robert Duvall plays the part of The Tango Assassin.

Sorry, Robert, this ego piece you wrote, directed and starred in is quite lame. This movie is extremely slow moving, painful in fact. The word "dull" comes to mind. The few minutes of dance even become boring and tango is a very exciting, flashy dance. There are numerous tantalizing tango moves, but you shot the exact same ones over and over, no variety at all. The beautiful dancer girl has absolutely no charisma when she is not on the dance floor. The assassination story is also slow, convoluted and hard to follow. I still don't know who the bad guys were... Also, Robert - and you know I love you, neighbor - please keep your shirt on. Your days of going without are over. Really. I mean that.

This film follows the well trodden path of an ageing hit-man (John J) sent on what may well be his last job in Argentina which also sets the backdrop for a second stand of the story: John J's love of Tango. Between the dancing and the hit-man underworld we move from light to dark and subsequently John J's character becomes difficult to like and yet difficult to dislike. And this is what makes this film stand out for me. John J is a real person. Sometimes good. Sometimes bad. The interplay between characters has also got a fresh kind of realism to it ala Ken Loach. The touching café scene in particular between John J and Manuela feels like a docu-drama with its unscripted pauses and moments of awkwardness. If you are looking for action but are sick of the wooden black and white characters we get from Hollywood then this film is for you. I loved it.

What things men do for the women they love!I've been collecting films where men direct their lovers. Its an odd phenomenon. Some are good pictures, some not. Taken together they are one of the richest film experiences I have. Just the notion of making art with, for, and to reveal your lover seems special to me.A 72 year old actor. Someone who always teeters on the edge of being a great actor but always hesitates. A 30 year old woman who has charmed him, with whom he lives and loves and dances.She moves dance into his life and he film-making into hers. The very idea warms me.With Coppola's loyal backing, Duvall weaves two threads. One is a fairly complex hit-man caper. The other is an almost affair, or perhaps an affair with a dancer.The problem is that Duvall is a horrible writer and director. It underscores my belief that actors, even ones who have been around a lot, just don't understand the cinematic long form, the dream that arcs for hours.I have one film in mind, a similar circumstance: Orson Welles and mistress in his "F is for Fake." It may be his most complex and cinematically advanced project, among those finished. It puts his girl in the middle in such a way that we all are in awe of her, her movement, the way she seduces the action and folds.There's another that is a sort of touchstone of this business of passion imagined, of urges sustained. "In the Mood for Love" wasn't made for a lover so far as I know, but it must the best film of the state Duvall reaches for here.The immediate problem is simple. If you want to make a film where dance envelopes every element of the thing, the urges, the movements, the twists and combat. The drama. The grace. If you want to do that you have to make it cinematic. Pure and simple."Tango, no me dejes nunca," now THAT was cinematic. This isn't and it rankles that Duvall doesn't acknowledge that it isn't. Though his love is dear, and we all root for him — well, me at least — its a tattered valentine. I KNOW he could do better. She must be worth it, right?So in the end, you feel you are watching a sort of tragedy, a sort of pale valentine of a perhaps uncommitted liaison. And is there anything sadder?Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.