Loss: Part 1

BONSAI (2011) (A-minus) - From Chile, a sweet, sad look back at first love, told by a mopey guy shuffling through his 20s, and an affecting homage to the written word.

The plot is solid: In the present day, Julio (Diego Noguera) is in line to be typist for a renowned novelist looking for someone to turn his hand-written notebooks into a neat manuscript. Julio bids too high and doesn't get the gig, but he's afraid to admit such to his new girlfriend, Blanca (Trinidad Gonzalez), so he buys a bunch of blank notebooks and ink, and he starts scribbling his own narrative into the books. For effect, he roughs the pages with coffee stains and cigarette ash, just like the novelist's authentic version.

As a jumping-off point, Julio takes the general idea that the novelist had: a man learns from a radio report that his first girlfriend has died. This launches the first of just a few flashbacks to college, eight years earlier, when he met a classmate from his literature course, Emilia (a brooding Nathalia Galgani). I don't think I've ever seen a more tender first kiss on screen. Their love-making (which is frequent) is slow and loving, as well. They have a charming disaffected rapport, often serenading each other with the pet phrase "blah, blah, blah."

He likes to read aloud to her in bed each night (be still my heart), though they usually nod off after only a few pages. They are partial to classics. The first time he takes his shirt off in front of her, he's got a sunburn with a white rectangle on his chest from where a book lay. "What's that?" she asks him. He responds, "Proust." A quote from "Swann's Way" -- about dozing off while reading in bed as the mind tricks itself into thinking that you are part of the narrative -- bookends the film. (Several scenes get echoes, pressing the theme of duality.) For Julio, that might make him wonder whether the novel he's writing is recording memories that are real or imagined.

Back to the present, Blanca offers criticism of the work in progress, thinking that it is the stylings of the noted novelist, not a rookie. Julio takes both the compliments and the cutting remarks in stride.

At one point in the flashback, Julio finds a fledgling clover plant, which is meant to symbolize the growth of them as a couple. Unfortunately, the plant reminds them more of the fragility of their relationship. Like most first loves, Emilia eventually turns into just a memory, the gap in time giving us no clue as to how or why they split up.

In the present, Julio seeks out a bonsai tree, nurturing it as if it were an infant. One day he runs into Barbara, Emilia's old college roommate. She gives him Emilia's number. He put off trying to reach her. Eventually he finds out her fate. Cut to the crooked little bonsai plant sitting on the window sill.

BONUS TRACKS
In America, the tagline for the movie is "A story about love, books and blah, blah, blah." In France, it is "Une histoire d'amour, de literature, de botanique."

The soundtrack (featuring some club performances) is quite good. Emilia is partial to Ramones T-shirts. (Look for it on Julio late in the film.) Here is a sample from the soundtrack, "Waka Chiki" by Panico: