An inspector hunts down Nobel Prize-winning Chilean poet, Pablo Neruda, who becomes a fugitive in his home country in the late 1940s for joining the Communist Party.
"Neruda" presents an interesting and imaginative way to consider the person - literary artist, ambassador, friend of Picasso and Nobel Prize winner - that Pablo Neruda (1904-1973) was.
What could be a simple, suspenseful hunt for impeached Senator Neruda becomes, in [director Pable] Larraín's artful film, a salute to Neruda's audacious defiance.
A sumptuous puzzle of a movie that takes a turbulent period in the life of the Chilean poet and politician and turns it into a fable about fame and the power of words.
This is a serious movie that often feels playful, one that has metafictional ambitions but wears them lightly. You can surrender to the enjoyment of the chase at the film's heart, while not losing sight of Larraín's serious aims.