Film Review: 'El Destello de la Luna (Shining Moon)'

For actors Renato (Ricardo Herrera) and Ivan (Pablo Sotomayor Prat), their life together as romantic partners has hit a rut. With the two struggling to find adequately paying work, and with Ivan's wandering eye, things look dire for the couple and their future together.

That is, until film director Anibal (Maximiliano Meneses) enters their lives, offering Renato and Ivan starring roles in his upcoming movie that will pay generously. The trouble is, Renato has an objection to his role: He and Ivan will be playing Lola and Ana, two elderly transvestites. Against the idea of cross-dressing for a performance, Renato's intolerance and refusal to do the film puts more strain on his fractured relationship with Ivan.

Will the film mean the end for Renato and Ivan—or will the performance end up awakening self-discovery in them that had long been repressed?

A little personal tidbit about myself: I have an odd fascination with May-December romances. There's just something about two people from different generations finding love in each other, despite societal norms saying that they shouldn't have anything in common. So, with El Destello de la Luna (a Chilean film available on Amazon Prime with English subtitles) starring such a couple, my interest was piqued going into the film. But, unfortunately, for all the strengths the film possesses, El Destello de la Luna carries with it a crippling flaw that permeates throughout the film: a lack of focus on the film's compelling story.

After the film spends some time establishing Renato and Ivan's estranged relationship, an additional conflict is thrown into the mix in the form of the job offer from Anibal that could greatly help the couple—only for Renato's surprising prejudice against cross-dressing to stand in the way of this opportunity. You would think that, with so much conflict brewing between Renato and Ivan, this would be the focal point of the film, exploring their differing views of sexuality, despite both being openly gay themselves, and the effects those differences have on the men's already rocky relationship.

Instead, however, much of El Destello de la Luna focuses around the film itself, and Renato's complicated work relationship with Anibal, with the third act being almost entirely dominated by Renato and Ivan performing in the film. Not only does their conflict regarding the film's themes and Renato's objections to it get seemingly resolved with little fanfare, but this also results in Renato and Ivan's storyline getting shoved to the background, and eventually, left with no sense of resolution. While there are a few strong scenes centered on the men and their relationship, and though the film-within-a-film concept is strong in places and is occasionally used as a parallel to Renato and Ivan's relationship woes, it's hardly enough to truly develop this emotionally-packed narrative, or to justify dragging the film's pacing to a long stall.

This poor focus also serves as a detriment to Renato and Ivan's relationship development. For much of the first and second acts, there's hardly any affection developed between the two to make the audience root for them to stay together, or feel sad as their relationship crumbles. While Renato and Ivan have a few good scenes together that speak to the mutual love between them, including a particularly powerful one during the third act, they spend a great majority of the film sniping and bickering with each other. With a plot that fails to give development to both its powerful central story and the complex couple it follows, El Destello de la Luna ends up disconnecting the viewer where it should've been drawing them in.

It's a shame that the film suffers from such problems as story and character development when it has a strong cast under its belt. Ricardo Herrera and Pablo Sotomayer Prat work off each other well, and share some strong moments together. Maximiliano Meneses is charming as Anibal, and has an impactful emotional scene when he explains to Renato the inspiration behind his film. Paula Leoncini also delivers a strong and somewhat comedic side performance as Ivan's cousin Anastasia, bringing a lightheartedness to the film, while also bringing some deep emotion to her character (particularly in regards to her friendship with Renato).

Visually, El Destello de la Luna has excellent cinematography for a low-budget film, though the film's use of slow motion didn't work for me as a stylistic choice. Had the effect been used for emotional or meaningful scenes alone, it would be a nice visual element to add to the surreal nature of the film as a whole. But, with it being used several times—and in places where such an effect doesn't feel warranted—it comes off as nothing but a needless affectation.

El Destello de la Luna is a textbook example of a strong concept being hampered by muddled execution. While the cast is strong and does well with the material, the film's neglect of its strong main story arc between Renato and Ivan leaves the story feeling hollow. Add to that the film's uneven pacing, and El Destello de la Luna is a hard film to recommend, despite its compelling premise. The cast is strong enough to make this film a worthwhile watch, but be prepared to be disappointed by seeing an intriguing story of troubled love unceremoniously dropped.

Score: five out of 10 artichoke petals.