Tribeca 2011: My Last Round Review
By David Kempler
We'll Call This a Draw
"My Last Round", is Julio Jorquera's first time out of the gate as a director and writer and he has created a very middle-of-the-road love story, with the exception being that the lovers are both men. At one time, this fact alone would have been enough to make the film shocking, but that power has been diminished to some extent, especially since "Brokeback Mountain" broke through here in America.
Our lovers are Octavio (Roberto FarÃas), a low-level boxer, who is one punch away from a brain hemorrhage, in the south of Chile, and Hugo a younger looking man who works at fairly low-level jobs. At the beginning, we watch Hugo watching Octavio as he goes jogging. It's clear he is interested and he makes sure to come across Octavio's radar screen. After the normal hesitation between both of them, the romance is on and they decide that they would be better off in a big city.
They settle into their new apartment with Octavio finding work in a boxing gym and Hugo working in a store. The unexpected happens when Hugo meets a young lady at his job and, while it is clear she is very interested in him, we are never quite clear what his views of her are. Hugo, looking almost perpetually bewildered, doesn't give away much of his true feelings, but they do end up in an embrace. Needless to say, this causes a rift between Hugo and Octavio. The rift propels Octavio back into the ring.
At times, "My Last Round" crawls out of its ordinary tale to give us a glimpse into the relationship between Hugo and Octavio, but those scenes are few and far between. The ending features some decent boxing and serves up a little bit of tension, but we certainly can't call this one a knockout.
