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Mexico · 1999
2h 3m
Director Luis Estrada
Starring Damián Alcázar, Pedro Armendáriz Jr., Delia Casanova, Juan Carlos Colombo
Genre Comedy, Crime, Mystery
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This political satire takes place in a small Mexican town in the 1940s run by the corrupt PRI party. After the mayor is assassinated, the party replaces him with a naive janitor, Juan. A simple man, he hopes to usher in an era of peace and justice. However, he is quickly corrupted by power.
Estrada can be faulted for not fully developing these supporting characters, or for not weaving them seamlessly into his story. His eye all along is so clearly and surely on The Point that at times plot details and peripheral performances are washed over.
Dallas Observer by Gregory Weinkauf
Smart, sassy and much more fun than most political diatribes.
A bracingly sarcastic political comedy -- it opens on a bound copy of Mexico's Constitution, stuffed with cash -- possessed of a baleful satiric eye for hypocrisy and greed, a delicious anti-clerical bent, and pitch-perfect comic timing.
Los Angeles Times by Kenneth Turan
A bombshell in its home country, Herod's Law is made with the kind of flair that ensures a following everywhere politicians are venal and voters hope against hope for deliverance.
Austin Chronicle by Marrit Ingman
It’s too didactic to be a spaghetti Western but lacks the moral compass required of a more evolved philosophical statement.
Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert
The film is bold and passionate, but not subtle, and that is its downfall.
The angrier the film gets, the less funny it becomes, squelched by heavy-handed polemics, a maddeningly repetitive musical score, and a running time that drags its overriding joke into the ground.
Estrada references Welles throughout with his low-angle deep-focus shots, grotesque close-ups, and brassy sound track. The actors are uniformly excellent, embracing their arch roles without succumbing to caricature.
Incisive, highly entertaining political farce.
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