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Review

John Leguizamo’s impressive and complex performance is at the heart of this powerfully moving and passionate examination of social inequity, the nature of cutthroat contemporary television and how far one reporter will go to get the story. Manolo Bonilla (Leguizamo) is a well-known Latino TV journalist for a Miami reality news program called “One Hour with the Truth,” which is aired throughout Latin America. While covering the story of “the Monster of Babahoyo,” a serial killer in Ecuador who has murdered and raped over 150 children, Bonilla intercedes in a mob attack and saves the life of a father who accidentally ran over a young boy. The man says he has information about the killer that he will impart to Bonilla in exchange for a story about him that could help in his release from jail. As Bonilla begins a series of interviews with the man and his family and friends, it becomes apparent that this man knows far too much about the abductions — and could, himself, be the serial killer. Rather than share this information with the police, Bonilla plays a dangerous game of cat and mouse as he tries to string along his subject for “the big story” — but exactly who is stringing who? Crónicas, which was Ecuador’s Academy Award submission for Best Foreign-Language Film in 2004, presents a haunting vision of a Third World exploited for ratings, where journalists struggle with their humanity, and where the truth can be interpreted, influenced and ignored.

 -- David Bleiler