This film was a more typical choice for Telluride, and had a promising storyline of a policeman chasing Neruda as he flees a fascist Chilean regime.
I was surprised by the adulation that Neruda received, and the character’s popularity with women even though he is a paunchy, bald middle aged fellow. When I dug into Wikipedia, it turns out that the actor does resemble Neruda.
I loved how Neruda espoused Communist ideals in support of the working man, while acting most of the time like a lazy aristocrat, exploiting all those around him.
The strange part, and where the movie failed, was the wasted Gael García Bernal. He played the strangely named Oscar Peluchonneau, an inspector who doggedly tracks Neruda through the remote country side. He maintains an interior monologue speculating on if he is a character in his own story, and it never seemed to fit.