Romance with a drug lord is rough
There’s not enough “loving” in the broad and glossy Pablo Escobar biopic “Loving Pablo” to justify that title, even though it is based on the memoir “Loving Pablo, Hating Escobar” by the notorious Medéllin Cartel boss’ onetime mistress, journalist Virginia Vallejo.
“Tolerating Pablo” might have better suited this unremarkable picture in which the wealthiest criminal of all time’s reported charisma takes a back seat to his badness in Javier Bardem’s rapacious, at times erratic portrayal, one that’s not helped by a funky (if perhaps accurate) hairdo, showy prosthetic paunch and unconvincing stabs at warmth.
The film, directed and scripted by Fernando León de Aranoa, is set apart from such other Escobar projects as Netflix’s “Narcos” in that it’s largely told, with the help of clunky voice-over narrative, from the viewpoint of
Vallejo (a decked-out Mrs. Bardem, Penélope Cruz) and her romance-gone-wrong with Escobar. The action, set between 1981 and the drug lord’s 1993 death at the hands of Colombian National Police, hits key points in Escobar’s reign of terror, including the cash-and-cocaine-crazy heyday of his omnipotent cartel, a fraught stint in politics, threats of extradition to the U.S. and his downfall, all punctuated with its share of look-away violence.
Peter Sarsgaard is illused as a Drug Enforcement Administration agent.
“Loving Pablo.” In English and Spanish with English subtitles. Rated: R, for strong violent content, some sexuality, language and drug use. Running time: 2 hours, 3 minutes. Playing: AMC Sunset 5, West Hollywood. Also on VOD