MUSEO


All Mexico, 2018, 128 minutes, Colour.
Gael Garcia Bernal, Leonardo Ortizgris, Simon Russell Beale, Ilse Salas, Lynn Gilmartin, Alfredo Castro, Leticia Bredice, Bernardo Velasco.
Directed by Alonzo Ruiz Palacios.


With a title like Museo/Museum, one can expect a film about works of art. But, in so many of the movies, museums are a target for robberies. And this is the case here on both counts.

The film opens with an emphasis on ancient Mexican monuments, their cultural value, their significance in the present – and with the work done to transfer monuments from their sites to museums. This theme of culture pervades the film.

However, this is also the story of Juan, a rich young Mexican who had been taken as a little boy by his doctor father to witness the transferring of one of the largest statues to the museum. Juan is dissatisfied with his life, his health, his prospects, even taunted by his sister as “Shorty� – and he is short because he is played by Mexican actor returning home, Gael Garcia Bernal.

Juan has a good friend from school days, Wilson (Leonardo Ortizgris), more genial than Juan, less complicated. Juan also has some domination over him.

Which leads to the main action of the film. It is Christmas. Juan has a plan for himself and Wilson to get into the museum at this quiet time and steal a number of the precious artefacts. Juan is well-prepared and the two young men are successful.

What Juan is not necessarily in need of money, he has perhaps been too much influenced by popular thrillers and decides that he will sell the artefacts to rich clients who are avid collectors. Actually, Juan is fairly shrewd in making contacts – though his shrewdness will rather evaporate after his experience with clients. He has a connection, a guide on a historic site who puts him in touch with an Englishman, Frank Graves, played by the fine British theatre actor, Simon Russell Beale. Selling off artefacts is not as easy as it might sound. Graves indicates that he works within the restrictions of the law and so this kind of treasure is not one that he wants to have.

The scenes with Simon Russell Beale a dramatic high point of the film.

An alternative? Going to Acapulco, trying to track down another fence for artefacts, finding the singer in a club, an actress admired by Juan because of the film she appeared in and danced in. And this does not quite work out in the way that Juan intended, complicated by the fact that Wilson’s father is ill and dying and he wants to return home. Cineastes will enjoy the Fellini and Nino Rota with the dense on the beach

How can this end? Will the two young men give up? Will the police have investigated and will they become suspects? How does Juan’s father react when his son tells him the truth?

While there is a lot of comment and dialogue about Mexico’s cultural heritage and the need for preservation, it is the questions above that prevail at the end of the film, turning it into a rather low key thriller.



1. Drama, melodrama, Mexican-style? Mexican sensibility, cultural history?

2. The introduction, archaeology, the removal of the statue to the museum, taking down the power lines, the truck, moving into the city, the building of the Museum? Juan and his father watching?

3. Wilson’s voice-over? The revelation about himself, his friendship with Juan, since childhood, his dependence on him? The celebration of Christmas? Juan and his decision to steal the antiquities, the consequences? The encounters with Bosco, with Frank Graves, the search for Pepe in Acapulco, the end, the story, telling the truth or not?

4. Juan and his comments about storytelling, history, not believing it, it being made up, the witnesses, the records, with the perpetrators themselves not necessarily telling the truth?

5. Juan and his family, the siblings, his father and the past, the father being a doctor, concerned about his son’s health, the mother and her love for her son, his sister calling him Shorty, the bond with Wilson, meeting with him, the plan, the long execution of the robbery in the Museum? Decisions about selling the antiquities, getting his father’s car, going to the tour site, with Bosco, making comments, Bosco and his lead to Frank Graves? The meeting with Graves, his admiring the antiquities, his forceful manner, the truth about nobody willing to buy such treasures? The decision to go to Acapulco, driving, Juan turning the lights off, speeding, Wilson and his concern? Wilson and his father, his illness, near to death? The news of his almost dying, the pressure by Juan on him not to go back, to travel with him? The searching for the club, for Pepe, the dancer and finds admiration for her film? The news that Pepe was dead? Taking the cocaine? The dance on the beach in imitation of Fellini with Nino Rota’s music? Losing the bag, the children playing, sandcastles with the ornaments? Meeting Wilson at the diving point in Acapulco? The decision to go home, to tell his father the truth? Going to the museum, his father driving him, leaving the mask? His being surrounded by the police? Indicating to Wilson to go away? The moral of the story? The rich boy, bored, wanting to get out of the town, to do something adventurous?

6. Wilson, as a character, weaker, his sick father, dependence on Juan, the sadness of missing his father’s death?

7. Bosco, the guide, the contacts with illegal trade in antiquities? The lead to Frank Graves? Graves, his personality, British background, treating the two as youngsters, explaining the truth to them?

8. The dancer, Juan’s admiration for her, defending her, the fight in the bar?

9. Juan’s future, going to jail…?