Mal dia para pescar Àlvaro Brechner

Mal dia para pescar works just fine as a visual journey through the colourful landscapes and small towns of South America – but it’s no The Wrestler.

Story-wise, the road leads nowhere. The sharply dressed Italian manager Principe Orsin and former world champion wrestler Jacob van Oppen hopelessly chase their lost fame and glory by travelling around South America, visiting 27 nameless towns, with van Oppen as a washed-up circus attraction, lifting car tyres and beating the shit out of the fortune-seeking locals who challenge him.

Van Oppen is chubby and unpredictable, suddenly jumping into a fountain, swimming and laughing, or crying and sobbing in church. Supposedly, all the fighting has turned him into a big child. But we don’t really get to know him, or his manager Orsin.

In fact, all of the characters - from the local strongman to the editor of the local newspaper - are stereotypes, like cartoon figures. Maybe the director is doing this deliberately as a reference to the fantasy world of wrestling. But in that case I’d rather go and see a really good cartoon.

Moa Geistrand