Olivia (Martina Gusman) is a young doctor riding with an ambulance as
part of her on-the-job-training. Sosa (Ricardo Darín) is a vulture, a
lawyer of the ambulance chasing variety who helps accident victims get
their compensation - but for a price, and the price is high enough to
actually support a shady organization of lawyers with connections to the
underworld Sosa is a part of. It's perhaps inevitable that Sosa and
Olivia meet on the job eventually, and Sosa takes an instant liking in the
young doctor. Olivia on the other hand detests what he stands for - making
profits off other people's injuries -, but can't help liking him back. The
two are pretty much on the verge of becoming a regular couple when
Olivia's ambulance is called to an accident - a guy literally threw
himself in front of a car - that was quite obviously staged by Sosa for an
extra profit. Problem is, the guy, the fake victim, should have gone away
with a broken leg, but he actually dies from multiple injuries. After
this, Olivia breaks off all contact to Sosa, but the accident somehow
breaks him as well. Sure, he was a crook trying to make a quick buck in a
not quite legal way, but the accident victim, the deceased, was his
friend, and on top of that, he doesn't want to consider himself a killer. Sosa
wants out of the organisation, but has to realize this is easier said than
done, because within the organisation are the only guys that can help Sosa
get his license to practice criminal law back, a license that was revoked
years ago, which is why he had become a vulture in the first place.
Furhtermore, there's a power struggle going on in the organisation, and
both sides want their share of Sosa ... Amidst all his problems, Sosa
finds Olivia on the hospital toilet, where she has overdosed on heroin. He
takes her home to avoid getting her into trouble, and gets her back onto
her feet. And after this, the two of them finally become an actual couple
- but this couldn't have happened at a worse time, because the war within
Sosa's organisation is in full swing, to an extent to which he sees
himself forced to beat a colleague and rival to a pulp, a crime for which
he is apprehended by the police - but not actually arrested, because the
cops have their fingers in the organisation as well, and they now try to
use Sosa for their own ends. Sosa only knows one way out, a method he
has learned during his time as a vulture: He actually provokes the police
to arrest him, but then has the car taking him to the precinct run into by
another car - and he sees to it that Olivia's ambulance is nearby to get
him out safely and get him to safety. The whole thing though ends in a
shootout, and Sosa and Olivia manage to make it out alive only just - only
to be then involved in yet another car accident, which mnight be the end
of them both ... Carancho is a cleverly constructed,
nice little crime thriller that's wonderfully carried by its two great
leads as well as a very subtle yet fluid directorial effort. Only the text
box in the beginning, which tries to root the film's plot in reality and
give it some socioploitical significance seems to be a bit out of place,
as it reads a bit too pretentious and adds nothing to the film's plot as
such, but that hardly matters once the film gets going. Pretty good,
actually.
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