NO

Just say ‘NO’

In 1973, the duly elected president of Chile was deposed by his own military, led by Augusto Pinochet. That coup initiated a 15-year reign of terror characterized by hu- man rights abuses, murder, exile and some 3,000 “de- saparecidos,” citizens who displeased the dictator and suddenly disappeared.

In 1988, international pres- sure led to a plebiscite on Pinochet’s continuation in power: voters were asked to vote simply YES or NO.

In NO, Director Pablo Lar- rain details the advertising campaigns on both sides. Liberal sympathizer and ad- vertising executive René Saa- vedra (Gael García Bernal) is recruited to head the NO campaign – after all, a guy who can sell soft drinks can certainly devise a winning electoral strat- egy – though his boss Lucho Guzmán (Alfredo Castro), on Pinochet’s advisory board, warns that “this could be bad for you.”

René’s biggest challenge is getting out the vote: the as- sumption of a rigged election is strong, and nothing lowers the vote more than the conviction that your vote doesn’t count.Money counts too – and the “NO” forces are outspent 30 to 1 – but at least Chile limits politi- cal campaigns to only 27 days.

NO is the last in Larrain’s trilogy that includes “Tony Manero” and “Post Mortem.”

The search for the right campaign strategy includes attack messages and “here’s what our candidate will do” approaches, but René vetoes them as not likely to get out the vote. Instead, he takes the tack Ronald Reagan’s campaign had taken eight years earlier in the United States, Reagan’s “morning in America” theme echoed by a positive message promising a better future for Chileans.

I love political themes in film, especially when the right guy wins. Larrain adds authenticity with a liberal use of archival footage, even going to the ex- treme of shooting the film with a U-matic video camera of the type used at the time in order to match footage with film. The result looks authentic, all right, but the out-of-focus im- ages, shaky hand-held camera work and insistent shooting of subjects from the waist up render the film difficult, even annoying to watch. It’s a pity, because this is an important political event and a film I would have preferred not to have to struggle to watch.

Bernal was doubtless hired to sell the film, and sell it he will. Always a pleasure to watch, his René is smart, upbeat and inexhaustible. Alfredo Castro is also fine as boss (Lucho Guzmán), as is Antonia Zegers as estranged wife Veronica Carvajal.

Studio: Sony Pictures Classics

Gazette Grade: A-

MPAA: “R” for language

Who Should Go: Political junkies and Larrain fans. in extreme lifestyles