Movies on the edge

By PHILIP BOOTH

[Photo: Miramax.]
Moncho (Manuel Lozano) and his teacher, Don Gregorio (Fernando Fernan Gomez), in Jose Luis Cuerda’s Butterfly.

BUTTERFLY (R) (97 min.) -- Wrap a genteel coming-of-age tale, leisurely paced and suffused with sentimentality, inside a troubling historical era. The result may be an awkwardly dressed simpleton of a period piece.

Jose Luis Cuerda has concocted just such a creature with Butterfly, the story of a friendship between an open-hearted boy and a kindly old teacher, just prior to the start of the Spanish Civil War in 1936. It's duly heartwarming, although less satisfying than its Euro-art brethren, Life is Beautiful and Cinema Paradiso.

Moncho, age 7, sensitively portrayed by wide-eyed newcomer Manuel Lozano, is an asthmatic boy worried about his first school day with an instructor with a (false) reputation for beating students.

Don Gregorio, sympathetically played by Fernando Fernan Gomez (The Grandfather), is anything but a monster. The lonely widower treats the boy with kid gloves, relieving his worries and tutoring the kid on the wonders of nature. These scenes, photographed in Spain's Galicia region, are the film's most lyrical.

After school, little Moncho spies on a randy couple, one of two scenes that earned the R rating. He also flirts with a pretty neighborhood girl and tags along with his saxophone-playing brother (Alexis de Los Santos).

Moncho keeps his innocence but opens his eyes to the ways of the world. Life is sweet. Trouble is brewing on the political front, and this is where the uncomplicated storytelling of Butterfly becomes a handicap.

Moncho's mother (Uxia Blanco) is a devout Catholic supporting the rising fascistic military, in cahoots with the church against the new, atheistic, pro-education republic. The lines of alliance, of course, weren't that crystal clear.

Butterfly nearly redeems itself with a poignant scene at the film's end, as supporters of the republic are dragged from their homes. Old friends are transformed into enemies, accusing the captives of promoting godless communism. It's a gritty twist more authentic than much of the film.

Spanish with English subtitles. Opens today at Tampa Theatre and Beach Theater. B

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