"No" Tackles Its Serious Subject Matter With a Wry, Intelligent Sense of Humor

Humor is Pablo Larrain's No's defense mechanism. The film's story of an ad campaign that helped topple the dictatorial Pinochet government is a bleak one that withholds no punches. But it's livened by a dark, intelligent humor. The ad campaign is filled with cliches, showboating, grandstanding and attention grabbing tactics. It's a desperate sunny side up attempt to slip in some political critique of Augsto Pinochet and his regime. Pinochet has only allowed a counter campaign to the 1988 referendum vote on whether he should maintain power to appease the United Nations; the Chilean government allots fifteen minutes of ad time at a God-awfully late hour. Most of the people working on the campaign, including and especially ad man Rene Saavedra (Gael Garcia Bernal), don't suspect it will have any impact and do it because as Atticus Finch said "real courage is ... when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what". The election is going to be rigged so that Pinochet ultimately wins even if he doesn't get the votes and there's still a good chance he actually wins legally. But if they can used the blessed little television time they have to actually get across an alternative, rarely heard opinion than perhaps that will be its own reward. The film is fantastic at capturing the vibe of the late 1980's and rich with tiny period details. It's shot as if being played on a worn out videocassette tape -- which could be gimmicky but is fitting for the film's look at the subversive, malleable power of news, video and television can have on us. At times it falls into the trap of hitting too many by-the-books, historically-based dramatic beats but it overcomes it with its sharp thematic underpinnings and a good, biting sense of humor.   

Grade: B+