The Risk of Loving Pablo
Penelope Cruz, Javier Bardem Sizzle on Screen
If you were a fan of the first season of Narcos, then the new Spanish film, Loving Pablo, needs no introduction. For those who didn’t ravenously consume that thrilling Netflix series, here’s a little primer. Between 1983 and 1987, popular Colombian TV journalist Virginia Vallejo carried on a notorious affair with married Colombian drug lord, Pablo Escobar. Vallejo’s bestselling memoir Loving Pablo, Hating Escobar, is the basis of the film starring Javier Bardem as the larger than life Escobar and Penelope Cruz as the smart and sexy Vallejo.
The memoir and the film centers around the five year affair during Escobar’s unbelievable rise in the Colombian cocaine cartel. As Escobar’s “career” was expanding, so were his goals of being a politician in the government. As insane as that sounds, it’s true: Escobar was elected as an alternate member of the Chamber of Representatives of Colombia in 1982, just months before he started his relationship with Vallejo. She was very helpful in guiding Escobar’s public relations, often staging photo ops for the King of Cocaine as he gave away public gifts like football fields and housing to the poor, creating a popular Robin Hood-like persona.
Who else but the ruggedly gentle Javier Bardem could capture the perplexing personality that was Escobar, an infamous killer who, at his height, turned Colombia into the Murder Capital of the world, as well as a cutthroat businessman who was responsible for sending more than 70 tons of cocaine to United States. And yet, a seemingly tender and exciting lover to his TV presenter girlfriend. And who but the delectable Penelope Cruz can embody Vallejo, the woman who helped bring Escobar down?
The chemistry between the real-life acting couple is as exciting as that between their characters. In fact, Bardem and Cruz have been bouncing off of each other’s talent for 26-years now, appearing in many films from Woody Allen‘s Vicky Christina Barcelona (2008) for which Cruz won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, to this year’s Cannes Film Festival opener, Everybody Knows. While Cruz says she loves having her husband’s support, especially when making a difficult film together, don’t look for another collaboration right away. “It’s not something we plan to do every two years,” she recently told Vanity Fair. “Just once in a while, if it feels right.”
And in the case of Loving Pablo, it definitely feels right. The film opens June 15th.
