How sad is this?

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Watching the film after fifteen years since its commercial release can make a difference in one's perception. "Martin (Hache)" presents that kind of dilemma for a viewer that might not have followed political events in Argentina during the terrible decade of 1970/1980s. A lot of left wing intellectuals preferred to go into a voluntary exile, such as Martin, a middle age man, a film director, who was able to pick up his career, making perhaps, a better life in Spain than in his old country.Martin, who is divorced from his first wife, gets an urgent call to return home. His son, also named Martin, but called Hache by the family, took a drug overdose that nearly killed him. Now in a coma, the young man recuperates. Talking with his old wife, Martin is told to take Hache with him. The former wife has no room for him in her new life with another man. Taking that responsibility makes an impact in Martin's life. After all, he is used to being alone, so the intrusion is not exactly what he had in mind. Hache's arrival proves to be not what the father thought it would be. Martin is seeing Alicia, a much younger woman, a film editor, with whom is he is having a stormy relationship. While Alicia does everything in her power to cater to her lover, he, in turn, has a different view of domestic life. Martin explains how he cherish his new life, by himself. He is a man that loves his solitude above all. Part of Martin's attitude toward Alicia is due to her dependency on drugs. Hache, on the other hand, does not find his place within his father's world. Dante, a gay actor, who is close to the father, takes the young man under his wing, but the boy's mind is still in Buenos Aires, his friends, his band, the girl he loves. Father and son clash about the way they feel about their native country. According to Martin, it is an illusion where everything is fake. The older man's life back there holds no happy memories, whereas Hache pines to go back.As Martin agrees to direct a new project, he asks Alicia to come with him to Almeria in Southern Spain to edit the screenplay. Alicia, who is dependent on drugs, has a confrontation with Martin because she finds herself at the end of her rope in their relationship. Dante and Hache, who come for a visit, are appalled by the state of things between the lovers. Tragedy hits unexpectedly, leaving Hache shaken. It does not come as a complete surprise when he decides what his next move will be.Adolfo Aristarain, the director of this film, wrote the screenplay with Katy Saavedra. The director created a well felt drama about a man who is unable to accept love from anyone. Martin has been by himself for such a long period of time that he mishandles the possibility of happiness with Alicia because he cannot commit too her. The arrival of Hache in his life is too late. He is a loner who will not change. He is incapable of showing love to anyone. He shuns companionship, preferring staying home listening to music, rather than socializing with people he likes. Alicia however much she tries, does not put a dent in Martin to change his ways.Federico Luppi does one of his most brilliant interpretations in front of the camera as this sad man in the middle of the story. By contrast, Eusebio Poncela, playing Dante seems to be overacting in his approach to his gay actor. Cecilia Roth makes an impeccable Alicia, one of the best roles she has made in front of the cameras. Young Juan Diego Botto appears as Hache. Ana Maria Piccio plays Martin's former wife.

Adolfo Aristarain is one of those rare filmmakers who defines his own world in cinema by writing and directing terrific stories with brilliant dialogue and using a familiar cadre of actors who give the finished product an ensemble effort. He is one of Argentina's finest artists and couples frequently with writer Kathy Saavedra (Roma, Un lugar en el mundo, Lugares communes, Martín (Hache), etc) and elects to use the extraordinary actors from Argentina such as Federico Luppi. Cecilia Roth, Juan Diego Botta and Eusebio Poncela. The results are stunning motion pictures that while addressing the intellect of the audience never fail to entertain as well.'Martín (Hache)' is just such a film. With a challenging and wise script and a cadre of fine actors in every role Aristarain has created a poignant, philosophical and superlative character study about people and their need for relating in the world as we have altered it today. Martín (the brilliant Federico Luppi) is a wealthy writer who left his family in Buenos Aires five years ago to live and work in Madrid. He has a nineteen year old son Hache (Juan Diego Botta) - Hache is the Spanish pronunciation for the alphabet letter 'J' and since the son's name is Martin J. he elects to be called J or Hache - who is a restless, foundationless teenager who refuses to go to school preferring to simply play his electric guitar and run with the drug crowd. His mother has remarried and has a new baby and Hache is feeling like a third wheel. He accidentally overdoses on alcohol and drugs during a performance, collapses, and his mother notifies Martín that Hache has attempted suicide to induce Martín to return to Buenos Aires and take back his son Hache. Hache of course recovers and his mother insists that Hache is in the way and that he must go to Madrid to live with Martín: Martín begrudgingly agrees.In Madrid, Martín has been living the life of a recluse whose only contacts are his squeeze Alicia (Cecilia Roth, an actress of limitless talent), who escapes her life by an addiction to coke but loves Martín, and his best friend the bisexual actor Dante (Eusebio Poncela) who is an Epicurean living all aspects of life for the pleasures he finds. Once Hache has moved in with his distant, cold, sullen father he falls under the influence of Alicia and Dante who adore him and attempt to show him a life of sunshine in Madrid while Martín sequesters himself in his writing. How this unlikely quartet interacts, bouncing the Apollonian against the Dionysian poles of living forms the basis for the story. Hache grows to understand the spectrum of worldviews, a tragedy occurs, and the ongoing silent duel between the father and the son comes to a touching resolution.Hearing and watching this quartet of brilliant actors is not unlike attending a performance of a fine string quartet. Aristarain keeps the long film (two hours +) moving in such a beautifully liquid flow that the story seems to take moments. But the moments are all treasures, the result of the ensemble of writing, directing, and acting. 'Martín (Hache)' is simply a brilliant film. In Spanish with English subtitles. Grady Harp

I love this movie, what more can i say?!.Some people say that this is a theatrical film because of its dialogues and locations, and i think it´s true, but what´s the matter?. In fact i think it´s like a Greek tragedy with all the kind of characters you can imagine: Dante (good chosen name) is the pleasure, Martín is the fear , Alicia is the emotion, and Hache is the doubt. And here they are mixed in Spain at the end of twentieth century.The performance is simply wonderful. Cecilia Roth (All about my mother) is splendid and what can i say about Federico Luppi who is one of the best actors in Spanish language that exists. I can imagine nobody except Eusebio Poncela as Dante. Juan Diego Botto is quite good.But the best thing in this movie are dialogues. They are really deep and make you think about many things in your life, especially when you are in the age of Hache, and you don´t find ways to mature. And film helps you to take account that many people is not as mature as they are supposed to be - for example Martin father -, and other many people is not as crazy as they are supposed to be - for example Dante-. There are phrases in this film that i know by memory and i use with my friends when we are joking. There are many interesting thoughts about love, loneliness, family, money, sex, drugs, and, of course, life.See it when you are sad.

This is the story of the relationship between a father (A movie director) and his son ( a young music ).The actors are excellent, specially Federico Luppi. The performances of the supporting characters are really good too.This movie is one of the best I have ever seen.