Written by Linda
December 27, 2008
There really is nothing particularly wrong with this film, except that I felt like I'd seen it before. Maybe because the director (who was in attendance) acknowledged that he and other Spanish filmmakers were trying to compete with Hollywood films. So, ironically, the result feels like a Hollywood film: good-looking cast, fast action, mystery, intrigue, but ultimately forgettable. Not that there is anything wrong with that!
The setting is Seville, Spain during Holy Week, when hundreds of thousands of worshippers take to the streets with ceremonial parades and festivals. A priest mysteriously dies, and a hapless underemployed writer Simòn (Eduardo Noriega... Spain's next beautiful export?) gets unwittingly sucked into the dangerous mystery. It plays a lot like the American film The Game from a few years ago... plot twist after plot twist... Trust no one.
I have to say that this film has one of the silliest bad-guy gimmicks I've seen in a long time. The scary guy's name is translated as "Frog", because he makes these really bizarre snorting/croaking sounds as a habit. The first time I heard it, I thought, "What the hell is that noise? Is there a pig in the room?" This becomes his trademark characteristic, so that when our hero hears this weird nasal snorting in the shadows, you know the bad guy is near. I kid you not.
