Mystery piles on mystery in this Hitchcockian Spanish film that's centred around the mysterious death of a wife whose body goes missing from the morgue. It's one of those films that's not just a whodunit, more maybe a 'whydunit', as the dogged detective struggle to figure out who might perform such an act and why.
The film was made by the team behind JULIA'S EYES - a movie which I absolutely loved - and for the most part it hits the mark. All of the "dark and stormy night" tropes and clichés are handled well, and there's a mischievous aspect to the narrative that keeps it fun. There are also more twists and turns than you'd expect even by genre standards, so that by the halfway mark you'll be thoroughly perplexed by the constant questions raised by the storyline.
What a shame, then, that the twist ending turns out to be so ridiculous given what's come before. I was expecting a solution at least part believable, but what we're handed here is a Scooby Doo-style resolution that could only happen in the movies; a solution so convoluted that it could never have a change of happening in real life. In short, I hated it, and it soured the whole experience for me; a shame given the strength of what comes before.
Plot summary
In the middle of the night, a guard working the night shift at a morgue located deep in the woods has a terrible car accident. But, why did the guard panic and left his post in the first place? Furthermore, according to the register, the body of Mayka Villaverde--a beautiful and affluent businesswoman--is mysteriously missing from the morgue. Presumably, Mayka died of a heart attack; nevertheless, who signed the death certificate, as her autopsy is still pending? In the end, there is a general principle in forensic medicine which specifically states that every death is a homicide until proven otherwise. But, finding out who is behind this fiendishly difficult case is going to be an arduous task. Can Inspector Jaime Peña get to the bottom of it?
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Effective mystery let down by an OTT climax
Mystery thriller par excellence
This is how you have to do a movie like this. It's a ride from beginning to end and it will keep you guessing throughout. Maybe you'll get things right and see the signs, maybe you're just enjoying things unraveling as the movie flows by. Whatever the case, you can be more than entertained with this little gem.
The acting is top notch and the script is really clever (I try to use this term as lightly as possible) and there is a touch of coolness to the characters, that is not forced upon them. The story might seem bigger at the beginning that it finally turns out to be, and there might be people disappointed with the ending. Take a chance though ... or wait for the inevitable US remake ...
Interesante historia
This Spanish Mystery/thriller/Noir film from Oriol Paulo and starring Belen Rueda(Julia's eyes, the Orphanage) had me on the edge of my seat until the very end. What's starts out as a mystery concerning the disappearance of a corpse from the morgue soon turns into a game of cat and mouse as nothing is what it seems and not even the dead can be trusted. Pure dread oozes through the entire film and by the end you are left with the hairs on the back of your neck standing on end and your blood running COLD.