Neruda. 2016. Chile/Argentina/France/Spain/USA. Directed by Pablo Larraín. In Spanish, French; English subtitles. 107 min.
“Following the Chilean president's outlawing of communism in 1948, [the poet Pablo] Neruda (Luis Gnecco) and his artist wife Delia (Mercedes Morán) are forced into hiding. While the mundanity of life on the run holds little charm for the cultured pair, this also proves to be a time of prolific output for the poet, as Neruda's ideologically charged poems rouse the people and give voice to the voiceless. Providing counterpoint to Neruda, [director Pablo Larraín] introduces a second protagonist: an invented character named Óscar Peluchonneau (Gael García Bernal, who previously starred in Larraín's acclaimed No), an ambitious police inspector hoping to make a name for himself by capturing the celebrity fugitive. Larraín uses the cat-and-mouse game between these two adversaries to reflect on notions of identity and character, as Peluchonneau strives to escape from his fictional origins by tracking down the "real" Neruda. Elegant and beguiling, Neruda offers a (fittingly) Nerudian vision of its eponymous protagonist. It's a metafictional fable that blends historical recreation with literary and cinematic fabrication. Pushing the limits of filmic biography, Larraín offers a stimulating and sometimes startling rumination on the split that can exist between the person and the persona, the man and the artist” (Toronto Film Festival).