La milagrosa (2008) User Reviews

Action, Drama, but no Explanation or Miracle

[claudio_carvalho · 7/10 · 7 September 2016]

In 1999, in Bogota, Colombia, Eduardo (Antonio Merlano), who is the son of a businessman, and his best friend Julio (Santiago Reyes), who is the son of a senator, travel on vacation. They are stopped at a roadblock by the army and when they leave their car, their bodyguard is executed by a soldier. Soon they realize that the group is not military or paramilitary, but a guerrilla group led by the violent Lagarto (Guillermo Iván) that intends to ask for ransom. They are transported by boat to the forest and on the arrival, the group is attacked and Julio is murdered. Along the months, the group commanded by Chino Medina (Hernán Méndez) is forced to move to different locations and only Lagarto's sister Mayra (Mónica Gómez) treats Eduardo well. Loneliness, starvation and the stressed situation provoke a loss of sanity in Eduardo. Will his father pay ransom or will he be rescued?

"La milagrosa" is a Colombian film by Rafa Lara the shows the effects of kidnapping for a long period in the victim. The action is well choreographed and the drama is intense, but unfortunately Eduardo is an arrogant character. However, there is no explanation about the conflict between military, paramilitary and guerrilla that seems to be in perpetual motion, with one group killing the other. The title is also not well explained and the only reference is the little medal that Eduardo's grandmother gave to him when he was a boy. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Conflito Armado" ("Armed Conflict")

The Warrior Virgin

[EdgarST · 2/10 · 11 April 2015]

By the title we have to infer that "the Miraculous" Virgin (Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, who has a large following in these zones of South and Central America) intervened in the solution to the drama of Eduardo Villarreal (Antonio Merlano), protagonist of this motion picture, the son of a bourgeois family from Bogotá, and she helped to free him from his guerrilla kidnappers with a bit of celestial magic. Of course, we also have to deduce that the Miraculous has connections with the Colombian army, which is the force behind the (accidental) liberation of the hoity-toity kidnapped guy, rescued in the last moment by a peasant family, after he is left wounded in the battlefield. By then the best characters have been killed or have gone deep into the jungle: Arturo aka Lagarto (Guillermo Iván) and his sister Mayra (Mónica Gómez), the son and daughter of a peasant, witnesses of his killing by a paramilitary troop. In the end we the spectators as well as the leading character (an arrogant fool who sticks to his class' principles until the end) have understood nothing about the Colombian war which has more than 50 years going on, and have to resign ourselves to the usual list of figures of dead, missing or kidnapped victims of the bloody war. The posh son returns home to mom and dad and literally "That's all folks!", because the final song that expresses the emotions of the Spanish-speaking victim is in English, no less. Unfortunately his grandmother (Clara Samper), who gave him a medal of the Miraculous Virgin as a present, is not around to explain the miraculous power of the Virgin, but we learn that the guy's best friend, son of a Colombian senator, who was kidnapped too, died in the first minutes because he did not have the Miraculous with him. For fans of action movies, the battle scenes are excellently choreographed, with highly professional special effects; there is also a little game for fans of the world industry of corporative football, and Merlano, who has top billing and wrote the story on which the screenplay is based, also has some screen time to sing a tune (in Spanish). You are warned. With good technical values and crass ideology as "Secuestro Express".

Very moving and realistic movie, touched on all the senses

[carlos_cman · 10/10 · 23 April 2009]

This movie deserves top billing alongside the multi-million dollar Hollywood movies. I felt every emotion during the movie. At times, the visual and sound effects were so real, I felt like I was in the jungle in the middle of the action. This movie had my complete attention from the very beginning. The visual and sound effects were of the highest quality. The movie was filmed in Columbia, but with Hollywood-like quality. The actors are mostly unknowns, but their performance in the movie was extraordinary.

I applaud the director, Rafael Lara, the actors, and film crew for putting together a fantastic movie. I hope to see it in the mainstream movie theaters in the near future.

La Milagrosa

[evil_monkey99 · 10/10 · 28 April 2009]

I watched this movie in late august, early September with my girl friend in theaters in Bogota Colombia. It was an excellent movie.

Anyways I wrote to the creator of this film and I found out that Colombia still does not have the means for putting their films onto DVD. I don't know when this work of art will be released. I would hope to own it on Blu ray but maybe that is hoping for too much if they can't even get it on DVD.

I sure hope this film will make its way to the united states, so Hollywood or whoever will be able to release this superb film onto DVD and Blu ray.

Please Vote for this film if you've seen it and thought it was a great work of art as did I.

Excelente!!!

[jabrahammendez · 10/10 · 1 February 2011]

One more time the Colombian directors show their talent, really great performances, even the extras are great, the director make a Hollywood movie with the Latin felling twist, the lead guy is outstanding I really love this movie!!!! Antonio Merlano its a the level of any great actor with experience, The plot has the classic love story that every movie of Hollywood has, but with a different ending. I saw Paradise Travel that I recommend too but this one is the classical movie that when you start seeing it you think that it will be the classical Colombian guerrilla movie low budget, but I repeat the performances are excellent.