Ignacio de Loyola is somewhat framed as journal entries written by the title character (played by Andreas Muñoz). It catches up with him as a young captain in Pamplona, eager to prove his worth in a battle against the invading French. He and his men are soundly defeated, and the young captain is left with a crushed leg. While recuperating, he is reads a book about the lives of saints and becomes inspired the example of St. Francis of Assisi. He decides to leave his noble birth behind to become a pilgrim, living a humble life in search of that which is good.
The film largely follows the future saint through episodes of his life as a pilgrim, starting from his early days as a beggar, to his later days as an informal preacher on the streets of Salamanca. The film has a pretty strange narrative structure, the film jumping over major events only to fill them in later on through flashback and character testimony. In its various episodes, the film isn’t able to establish clear themes or motifs, making the whole thing feel disjointed. It feels altogether awkward, the movie ultimately unable to tell its story in a clear, coherent fashion.
The movie suffers from a flaw that many biopics have: a lack of focus. Though the timeframe depicted in the movie isn’t very long, the film fails to really zero in on a particular narrative. The film touches on the subject’s childhood, his life as a soldier, his recovery from injury, his early days as a pilgrim, and his encounter with the Inquisition. And that last part is packed with more revelations of how Iñigo spent the last few years, which involves preaching in the streets, gaining an education, and spending some time in a cave developing a method to examine moral choices.
In trying to cover all of this, the film develops a really awkward structure. It makes odd jumps backwards and forwards through time, preventing the film from developing any real emotional momentum. It is generally not a good idea, for example, for the climax of the movie to take place in a flashback. It gets even more absurd, as that flashback features other flashbacks. By the end of those nested trips into the past, the movie returns to the present devoid of action and drama, the story stumbling basically stumbling into a dispiriting conclusion.
The film deserves some credit for how it looks, but there isn’t a whole lot behind the lavishness. The camera is largely static, and largely conveys a sense of wonder even in scenes that has the subject confronting the divine. In spite of the lavishness, the film feels stiff like a TV production. The acting doesn’t help in this regard, either. The film makes the choice of having the dialogue be in Spanish-accented English. One may understand the reasoning behind the choice, but it still makes everything feel clunky. It certainly doesn’t help the Spanish actors, who are forced to emote in a secondary language. And it makes the whole thing feel like an elaborate reenactment for some sort of TV special, instead of a movie.
Ignacio de Loyola will probably find plenty of life in classrooms, particularly in the Jesuit-run schools that serve as the legacy of its subject. There is certainly educational and instructional in this film, in spite of some of the liberties it takes with history. But taken as a piece of commercial entertainment, it is too stiff and awkward to really be effective. It moves so slowly and so awkwardly through its own story, the movie unable to find the focus that is usually required of three-act cinema.
My Rating:
