Good Spanish suspense. In general, I love Spanish thrillers, they are very different from the rest of some internal broken and completely crazy eyes of the characters, among which there are no glossy beauties and macho. Because of the ordinary landscapes and completely ordinary faces, this movie becomes even more scary.
I won’t recommend it to anyone, the film is quite heavy, albeit without bloody scenes. It is not about physical fall, but about moral, and all the heroes.
The film intertwines three storylines: former literature teacher Louis, now unemployed, and his leukemia patient twelve-year-old daughter. Barbara, the wife of a wealthy and successful psychiatrist suffering from depression, and also a former teacher Damian, who served time in prison and recently released.
The beginning of the film sets to oh-hip the “last wish of a terminally ill girl” who, knowing that she will soon die, asks her father to give her a taste of cigarettes and gin. But Alicia's real wish is a cosplay dress for her beloved anime heroine. This father finds out by accident and decides at all costs to fulfill this dream.
But a Japanese dress costs crazy money that unemployed Luis simply doesn't have. He has no one to borrow, nothing to sell. He almost decides to rob a jewelry store, when suddenly by chance (submitted rather ridiculously and ... in everyday life) finds a way to improve his well-being.
By chance, he meets Barbara, who is in permanent depression and is a bit out of her mind, even forced to take antidepressants. Louis learns that Barbara has a rich husband and begins to blackmail her.
And from that moment on, these supposedly respectable residents of a Spanish city (I never knew where the film was shot) appear in their monstrous reflections, showing us the lowest, darkest side of their souls. Louis, for the sake of his daughter, is ready to blackmail an innocent woman and break her promises. Barbara, forced by blackmail to return to her dark past (which is probably why she is now on antidepressants), but one shot clearly demonstrates that this past was rather voluntary. She is plunged into the abyss of horror and eventually is broken physically and mentally now forever. The scariest picture in the film just foreshadows this. No, no blood or torture on camera. It's just an envelope glued to the door and a blank piece of paper in the envelope. But believe me, there is no worse picture in this film. Even the subsequent murders are not as horrifying as this leaf.
Later, the film adds a line of Damian, Barbara's former teacher, linked to her shared past. The movie doesn’t say anything in the forehead, but you can figure it out. And he also ironically becomes her savior and arbiter of justice in his own way. Although his revenge gets out of control and becomes another plot-forming twist.
The ending is quite unexpected, but flawlessly logical.
Now about visuals, selection of actors and other details.
At the Oscar for cinematography, this film, of course, does not pull, there are hobbies close-ups “for drama” and a few rather stupid angles, but I forgave the cameraman because of three plans: the already mentioned envelope; a shot where Barbara undresses (and there is no eroticism) and a frame-confrontation Damian and Alicia.
About the soundtrack really nothing to say because of the one-voice translation and periodically bursting into the fabric of the film advertising (and did not find where it came from), music, to be honest, not remembered, some Spanish song leitmotif.
The film is divided into different semantic segments by the old-fashioned reception of the “long ZTM”, for which the modern viewer is not always ready. Over the plans of this film we must think, many of them "talking", but only those who can hear.
But the actors are gorgeous, although we probably have unknowns.
Jose Sakristan ("Damian"), probably familiar to someone from the "Office Pharmacy." Looks like a mixture of Woody Allen and Ian McKellen, an intelligent-looking old man. He perfectly acts out confusion, preparation for revenge and revenge itself. Although he has a supporting role, for me his character came out the brightest and most unhappy.
Marina Parlade Andyu (Barbara) is a well-established depressive and self-contained woman who cannot be helped even by her psychiatrist husband. But isn't it because Barbara doesn't want to be healed? Very revealing scene with friends and their newborn child. This is one of those scenes where there is nothing to be afraid of, and the blood in the veins gets cold. And when Barbara decides to walk in the door with the salamander (see if you know what I mean), she's not sorry. She completely loses herself, both physically and mentally. She does not trust her husband, otherwise she would admit that she was being blackmailed (yes, the reason for blackmail would not please her husband, but perhaps the whole nightmare that eventually happened would not have happened). She asks Damian to punish the blackmailer, not to say that he did not cripple her body and soul. That is, it simply rakes other hands of heat from the fire.
Luis Bermejo ("Luis" / "Pedro") is an absolutely "average" citizen, not attracting attention, middle-aged, "no" appearance, seemingly impoverished intellectual, unsettled and burdened with life. Plus a sick daughter. She's been sick for a long time, and Louis's emotions on the subject are long gone. He watches Alicia fade, knowing that there is nothing he can do to help, and when he finds her diary, he decides to brighten up her last days and make a gift - a cosplay dress. And as he goes on his terrible journey to this dress, Louis becomes more assertive, more direct, more violent, and emotional, but not good. And he increasingly goes to the bar in the evenings to drink coffee liquor, leaving his daughter alone at home. I don't think he wants to look her in the eye, even if he fulfills her dream. When your dream is complete and complete...
Lucia Polyan (Alicia). A visual embodiment of a girl with leukemia. Very thin, almost exhausted, with a hedgehog that began to grow after chemotherapy, only eyes on her face. The girl very skillfully played a child exhausted by the disease, weakened, almost emotionless, but trusting and sincere. She likes manga, she and her friends have come up with Japanese nicknames, and a dress would be a wonderful gift. Unfortunately, Alicia’s desire to be exactly like her idol launched a series of uncontrollable events, and she too fell into their whirlpool.
In conclusion, I will say that despite the lack of action, chase-fights, candid scenes (which are sometimes directly requested, yes), the film keeps in suspense, and at the end, a strangely vibrating lump is formed in the stomach, and a little shivering. This is a really good psychological thriller with a transition into drama.