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J-Lo flops in Berlin with 'Bordertown'
2007-02-15
US actress and pop star Jennifer Lopez defended her new movie, "Bordertown," against a howling pack of reporters at the Berlin Film Festival turned off by ludicrous plot turns and wooden dialogue. Directed by Gregory Nava, "Bordertown" features Lopez as a journalist risking her life to cover the true story of the vicious killings of more than 300 Mexican women since 1993 in the city of Juarez on the US-Mexican frontier. Many of the victims were women working in 'maquiladoras', the foreign-owned factories that sprang up on the border due to the NAFTA free trade agreement. Despite the worthy subject matter and the good intentions of the filmmakers, reporters at the world premiere roared at the subtle-as-a-sledgehammer dramaturgy and greeted the ending with loud boos. At a press conference after the premiere that included the mother of one of the Mexican victims, Lopez, 37, insisted she was proud of the movie, which she also produced. "It's been a very emotional thing for me from the moment that I found out this was going on," she said of the murders. "When Greg came to me with the project I immediately became very passionate about it and said that I would do it and I would help him get it made. I really felt like it came to me for a reason." Lopez said she had worked closely with Nava on the script, one of the many pitfalls of the project. "This isn't free trade, this is the slave trade!" Lopez's character shouts in one of her sloganeering lines. The bilingual dialogue also proved to be a minefield for the story as one of the poor factory workers suddenly begins speaking perfect American English. Meanwhile, Lopez's American character takes over as editor-in-chief of a Mexican newspaper with her admittedly spotty Spanish. The plot has other crater-sized holes. Although there are believed to be several murderers behind the case, only two men repeatedly fall in the traps Lopez lays. And the actors, who also include Antonio Banderas, hammed it up to the scorn of the notoriously tough Berlinale crowd. Although she has had a few modest hits including "Out of Sight," J-Lo's record in films has been mixed. In 2004, she picked up six "Golden Raspberries" for one of the most expensive flops in history, "Gigli," with then lover Ben Affleck, including worst actress. Although she was not expected to take home any of the Golden or Silver Bear Prizes at the festival, Lopez accepted an award late Wednesday from human rights organisation Amnesty International for drawing attention to the plight of the women in Juarez with her film. Mexican-American director Nava said he had received death threats while making the picture, which depicts big business, the governments on both sides of the border and the media as part of a conspiracy to protect the killers. "We had a lot of difficulty getting the film financed and finally we had to get it (made) independently," he said. "If Jennifer had not gotten involved this film would never have been made." Norma Andrade de Garcia, whose daughter Alejandra was kidnapped and murdered in 2001, pleaded with reporters to keep up the pressure on Mexican and US authorities. "Today or tomorrow, you'll write an article about this, but in a week, you have to ask yourself 'what's going to happen now?' You have to stay informed about this," she implored. "In the first twelve days of February, three more women were killed. How many more are needed for the authorities to think this is a matter of importance?" The Berlinale, one of the top three film European festivals, wraps up Sunday after a gala awards ceremony Saturday night.
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