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Jun 09, 2014 By Zach Hollwedel Web Exclusive

Heli (Armando Espitia) lives with his wife, baby, father, and twelve-year-old sister, Estela (Andrea Vergara) in a Mexican town ravaged by drug-related violence. Unbeknownst to the family, Estela has fallen in love with Beto (Juan Eduardo Palacios), a police cadet five years her senior. When Beto finds a stash of drugs, he hides them at Heli’s house with plans to sell them the next day. Believing he’s doing what’s right, Heli destroys the drugs; this well-intentioned act imperils his family when the dealers come looking for their stolen goods and Heli has nothing to give them.

At times brutal and deliberately languorous, Heli is an examination of its eponymous, passive protagonists’ slow build toward action in light of very trying circumstances. Heli is a quiet, pensive character, slow to act and even slower to react, and director Amat Escalante (who receives co-writing credit) does a great job reflecting this inertia with his lingering camera and unhurried pacing. At times, Escalante’s leisurely plotting causes the film to come across as a little too dawdling, but for the most part, the intentional sluggishness is well suited to the story. Heli’s inaction, however, sidelines plausibility after he returns from a horrid beating at the hands of the drug dealers. The Hollywood version of Heli would find the titular character kicking in doors and breaking fingers to find his kidnapped sister, but Escalante takes it a (perhaps) more realistic direction that at times seems too far-fetched. Receiving little help from the local police – other than a bizarre seduction attempt from a female detective – Heli resorts to doing very little at all to locate his missing kid sibling. He simply tries to carry on with his life with his remaining family.

Drug-related killings in Mexico are daily news in the Americas, and Heli is a unique, at times difficult, look at how the violence affects every-day people. There are some questionable plot choices, perhaps explicable with more intimate knowledge of life and law enforcement in Mexico, and the graphic violence might be too much for some. More consistent is Escalante’s direction, which constantly delivers gorgeous and well-dressed shots scene after scene. Though not without its faults, Heli is a beautifully shot, deliberately quiet surprise.

www.helithefilm.com/en

Author rating: 6/10