Cinema Scholars reviews La Soga: Salvation, a sequel to La Soga (2009). The film’s star Manny Perez steps behind the camera to resuscitate hitman Luisito. However, the finished product emerges as a weary retread of threadbare tropes.
Synopsis
Luisito (Manny Perez), a retired hitman formerly known as “La Soga,” enjoys life with his wife Lia (Sarah Jorge León). They live in a quiet apartment. Lia has finally secured a steady job as a nurse. Luisito has taken English lessons and prepares to give a celebratory speech at the class reception.
Yet, just before stepping up to the podium to deliver a carefully prepared speech, a government operative (Chris McGarry) suddenly appears. The man informs Luisito he needs him for one last job.
While Luisitio initially declines, the operative quickly kidnaps Lia and swears she will die unless Luisitio kills a man about to hand over proof of government corruption in the Dominican Republic. What follows is a high-stakes game of double-crosses and intrigue while Luisitio searches for Lia.
A Threadbare Story
Perez, who pulls triple-duty as the writer, director, and star, serves up a screenplay saturated by cliché. The set-up of La Soga: Salvation is that of a hitman coerced into one final job, and has been iterated on for decades.
The concept may have had its heyday in the 1980s when Charles Bronson lorded over the archetype, but ever since Taken (2008) announced the older-actor-as-vengeful-killer to be a viable pursuit, the market has flooded with low-budget variations released at a remarkable rate.
Therefore, the foundation Perez establishes is far from promising. If the launching point for a story is mired by genre platitudes it must work double-time to overcome them. Unfortunately, the rest of La Soga: Salvation only doubles down on tired repetition.
Of the issues plaguing Perez’s script, one of the clearest is Lia’s nonexistent characterization. Perez takes little time distinguishing her from the multitude of under-baked wives and girlfriends occupying the genre.
She is a nurse, happy to be with Luisito, and proud of him for learning English. She’s also defined entirely by Luisitio’s need to save her. The only major female character in the film, double-crossing assassin Dani (Hada Vanessa), is just as thinly sketched. She arrives on screen as a violent seductress, and so remains with only the inclusion of a beat about her seeking vengeance for her father whom Luisito killed.
It is that latter point that figures greatly in causing the narrative to fall apart. Her decisions are nearly nonsensical in helping than harming Luisito. A screenplay could overcome flimsy characters or poor plotting, but embracing both is a death knell.
Inconsistent Directorial Vision
Growing forth from the script is a directorial vision containing fits of inspiration, but defined broadly by convention. Whether shooting action or conversation, Perez opts for a majority shot-reverse-shot approach. The choice saps energy from sequences that should provide the opportunity for kinetic filmmaking.
A showdown between Luisito and James, the government operative, should be a taught payoff to a major subplot. Yet, it unfolds with all the suspense that you might find in a pedestrian diner conversation.
Even when Luisitio dashes around town through a series of pursuits, there is no actual momentum for the character to build on. For the majority of the runtime of La Soga: Salvation, it unspools as a repetition exercise in delaying the inevitable final standoff that the script provides little reason for postponing.
All this is especially disappointing because of the rare instances when Perez reveals a far more interesting directorial vision. There is a dream sequence late in the film where Luisito stands naked in a corner store. He hears a voice and drifts to the back freezer. Inside, hanging among the slabs of meat is a man.
Under flickering lights and a color palette as frigid as the freezer air, Luisitio discovers the man is him. He awakens in terror. The whole experience is disconcerting and engaging, precisely what one hopes for in a memorable scene.
There are a handful of other dream sequences and each displays a unique take on a killer’s subconscious. This is not to say La Soga: Salvation could only have worked as one long abstraction, but rather that the film writ large would have befitted from the creativity Perez brings to the more surreal moments.
Conclusion
One must wonder if La Soga: Salvation is the result of Perez’s vision suffering from his trifecta of creative responsibilities. He is a talented actor who embodies Luisito well, but each component around his performance emerges underdone, as is often the case when one person’s energy is spread across three major creative roles in a bare-bones production. Clearly a passion project for Perez, it is unfortunate that the end result is an anemic, formulaic, genre exercise.
La Soga Salvation will be available to stream on January 28, 2022, on VUDU or Vudu Movie & TV Store, and will be in theaters on February 17, 2022.
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