Saw this at the Imagine filmfestival 2021, usually in Amsterdam but now 100% online. Many unexpected turns of events and even so many suprises while the story progresses. Well made. Anti-hero Dani as main protagonist succeeds in carrying the complete story. Believable or not, in desperation and sheer panic anyone can rise above himself, precisely what we see Dani doing.
A heart-warming start in the first quarter. Not all families are connected so well, most fight over the inheritance and boast how well they cared for the deceased while calling the other lazy and indifferent. None of that is the case here.
The second quarter could be an average love story. Nothing spectacular, other than that we know there is much more to follow to fill the allotted running time. It all becomes different and surpasses average romantic affairs when Mila's boy friend Ray appears.
In the third quarter, all cosiness is gone. Ray is violent by design. Especially when Dani finds a wheat farm in the apartment, killing Dani is the first thing on Ray's agenda. Revealing his secret business adds to having messed with his girl friend. Dani would have been strangled when he had not grasped a pair of scissors and killed Ray. Mila is devastated and jumps out of the window from the 5th floor, landing on a car roof below.
A tense fourth quarter shows Dani cleaning the apartment, removing all traces that might point to him, and subsequently leaving the building despite being surrounded by police cars. He succeeds, not bad for him with no criminal experience. It becomes even more tense when Dani remembers the selfie taken in the tatoo shop, hanging on the wall there. After he breaks in successfully, he finds himself trapped in an extremely dangerous situation.
I can go on, with still more surprises on the way, but I leave it here for spoilers' sake. The above gives a good impression that fast-paced developments will continue, gaining more traction and speed when the story progresses. It also includes a moral dilemma about getting rid of an unwelcome witness, who might reveal things that Dani does not want known. All in all, a perfect thriller leaving no desires for improvement. Serves its purpose very well as one-off entertainment.
Plot summary
2019, Barcelona (Catalonia, north-east to Spain). Dani is a shy young man who works as seller in a travel agency. Good mannered, friendly and nice, his quiet life takes a dramatic change after the death of his aging father after a long disease, which was cared by the own Dani in his house. In the funeral, Dani's sister Laura tries unsuccessfully to convince Dani to take a break and make the long-time postponed travel around the world. Determined to help her brother, Laura meets Dani in his work office at the next day pretending funny to be a client interested in a travel, forcing Dani to buy an online ticket. This same night, while Dani dines in a bar checking the online ticket and with doubt to close the buy and go away at the next morning, a girl asks help to pay the food she asked after her date not appeared. Looking for be kind, Dani invites the girl, who presents herself as Mila. Dressed in black, unstable and fragile but full of tattoos and exciting, Dani feels interested on her, who asks Dani go with her to pay the favor with the food. Going with Mila, Dani learns that she works as tattoo artist in a saloon, accepting reluctant her offer to make a tattoo for free, making them a Polaroid to put it in the wall of clients. However, after Mila takes Dani to her home to have sex with him, the situation turns out of any control when in the house appears Ray, bully and violent Mila's boyfriend. Discovering that Mila was all the time sending messages to Ray using Dani for making him jealous, the discussion between Ray and Mila explodes when Dani, attempting to leave the house, finds a secret room where Ray has a plantation of marijuana. Anger, Ray strangles Dani, that saves his life in the last moment by taking a scissors and nailing in Ray's neck. Killing him, a turned crazy and desperate Mila decides commit suicide for jumping out the window. Trying to digest the happened, a shocked Dani is forced to find a way to escape when several police cars surrounds the building. Cleaning all the house of any evidence that it could relate him with the assassination, Dani starts an unstoppable race to escape for meeting Laura, looking her help as criminal lawyer. Once with Laura, she reports him that the police have no clues about him, and that Mila killed Ray and after jumped taken by the regrets. Remembering suddenly the photo, Laura asks Dani to wait a little time more to watch as the investigation advances, but dominated by anxiety and fear, Dani decides don't wait to come back to the tattoo saloon, just to find himself trapped in a hell of travel pursued by half dozen of furious Ray's job partners, and where a single phone call can be more dangerous that all them.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
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720p.WEB 1080p.WEBMovie Reviews
Unexpected turns of events and many surprises along the way. Well made and perfect one-off entertainment. Anti-hero in a lead role carries the full story
Mario Casas acting his heart out
A small scoped but frantic thriller with a powerful Mario Casas at the centre of it. A suspenseful experience with a chilling finale.
Don't do it
It probably is something you shout or at least think while you watch the main character ... doing something! He is quite the gullible little naive little human. Not little in size that is. We get to know him and his sister, before we/he dive into a spiral that seems to be un-escapable.
Once you cross a line ... there is no coming back. Although even then, the question is, why go for something and endanger yourself while doing it? Suspension of disbelief ... and a really out there approach to certain things. Not all may agree with everything he does, but overall it makes sense. And I have to admit it is funny to see the main character being played by someone who I only know as the complete opposite of what he portrays here! Good for him and fun for us to watch!