Product: Las Manos
Rating: 5.0
A Superb Performance
I found this DVD "Las Manos" by trawling through the local library and decided to check it out, and I'm glad I did. This story of miracle worker Padre Mario Santaleo of Argentina was fascinating. It was well-directed and I was especially impressed by the performance of Argentine-Italian actor Jorge Marrale who played Padre Mario. What a subtle and heart-felt performance! You felt that you were watching not just an brilliant actor at work, but the actual spirit of a deeply compassionate and humble man that Padre Mario was said to be.The story is that as Padre Mario exercises his uncanny gift of healing, this proves to be an embarrassment to a Church that had shunted aside its mystical side in favor of political realities. He is also persecuted by the government suspicious of the power of miracles on the people. The film shows his numerous clashes with both the Church and the government from different angles. Soon Padre Mario finds himself exiled into the countryside where he bends his energies into slowly building his chapel and healing those who come to him. Meanwhile, a cancer victim who had been healed by him earlier, a woman named Perla, devotes her life to being his assistant, which adds to the scandal. A Platonic love quickly grows between them, one that sometimes tempts them both to go further, but they refrain. This mutual restraint makes for a sweet tension between them throughout the film that seems to further energize the power of love behind the healings.There's a number of twists and turns in this film as Padre Mario attempts to get permission to perform Mass at his chapel from the Church who wants him to recant his miracles. They even send a spy, masquerading as a rebel priest, to monitor his doings. Meanwhile, Padre Mario, with single-minded purpose, tries to work through these obstacles while enduring declining health.There were a number of affecting and intriguing scenes when Padre Mario tried to explain his gift to skeptics and sometimes painfully, to himself, wondering why he was given this gift when he knew himself to be unworthy of it. In this (as throughout the whole film), the actor Jorge Marrale was superb in conveying the whimsy, the love and the anguish of a miracle worker out of step with his times which no longer tolerated miracles. Marrale's performance was stunning. I strongly recommend this film.