A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings

One of the last two releases in the collection of six film adaptations of stories by Latin American novelist Gabriel Marcia Marquez, is in some ways the most daring, yet most annoying, of this otherwise excellent sextet. Directed by and starring Fernando Birri, the film begins on an extraordinary note. During a nocturnal cyclone, a man lands in the shallow water near a Columbian couple's shack. Rescuing the "man," the couple notices a rather strange thing--his arms are really enormous wings. Apparently, the old man, dressed in white, sporting a serious wing span, is an angel. Or, at least, that's how the couple bills him. Housed in a chicken coop, the old man is besieged by thousands of visitors daily, who pay their entrance fee for a glimpse of the "angel." Before long, other grifters set up shop near the couple's shack, and the whole area takes on the atmosphere of a carnival. (For anyone who has ever asked the question about what reception Jesus would receive today, this film offers a pretty plausible scenario). Unfortunately, although the film does have a wonderful resolution, the entire middle is given over to the sheer cacophony of the "circus," making this a very brassy, very loud film. Still, A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings is thought-provoking in its exploration of religion that one can overlook the excessive middle section in favor of the whole. Recommended. (R. Pitman)