GUANTANAMERA

Guantanamera has a light, cheerful surface. Its funeral journey through Communist Cuba creates humorous situations, and the characters meet hardship with banter, dancing, and optimism. The sardonic look at black-market bartering and the Communist regime gives the film some interest.

But the movie’s central romantic vision is deeply troubling. It treats infidelity and promiscuity as liberating and amusing, while marriage becomes an obstacle to personal happiness. The story’s sentimentality also overwhelms its better observations.

Because the film carries −2 family content and is intended for adults, it is not a family movie. If you are curious, wait to watch it at home, where you can control the experience and discuss its ideas.

Yoyita, a famous Cuban singer, returns to her hometown of Guantanamo after 50 years and reunites with her childhood sweetheart, Candido. After Yoyita dies, Candido follows her body toward Havana for burial.

A funeral cortege forms around them. Yoyita’s niece Georgina travels with her undertaker husband, Adolpho, whose obsession with saving gasoline creates additional trouble. Other travelers join the journey, including a truck driver and Mariano, a former student of Georgina.

Two stars means this film has some appealing ideas and moments but does not fully succeed. The folk song “Guantanamera” introduces chapter-like sections, and the light touch gives the harsh setting an infectiously good-natured energy. Scenes of ordinary people bartering bananas, garlic, and dead chickens offer interesting, humorous asides.

The film also plods. Its romantic theme becomes overblown and soap-operatic, while over-sentimentality drowns out sensitivity. The cheerful tone cannot overcome the story’s irresponsible treatment of marriage and fidelity.

The film views romantic love as a force that should be pursued even when it violates marriage. Georgina’s rekindled relationship with Mariano is presented warmly despite her marriage, and Mariano’s pursuit of one woman after another is treated lightly. Even Candido encourages Georgina to seek happiness in another person’s arms.

That outlook conflicts with a biblical view of marriage as a faithful covenant rather than an arrangement to leave when love fades. The film also places its romantic worldview alongside pagan rites and mysticism, while offering a sardonic portrait of life under a harsh Communist regime. Its good-natured treatment of hardship and its optimism about ordinary people are more appealing, but they do not repair the film’s moral confusion.

Scripture gives marriage a steadier foundation: “What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate” (Matthew 19:6).

Guantanamera offers good-natured humor and an interesting look at Communist Cuba, but its romantic message makes a mockery of marriage. For discerning adults who remain interested, watch it at home rather than with children or young teens. WAIT FOR HOME — ADULTS ONLY. Consider these.