User Reviews

Since no one has written a review of this yet, I will write one. We are learning Spanish and so we watch mostly Spanish movies and TV which is why we watched this. It's a well scripted, well acted movie that kept us interested from start to finish. It's about four business partners who have been ripping off the government and who are on the point of being caught. The only solution they can come up with is for one of them to take the fall (and go to prison for 7 years) so the other three can go free and so the business can survive. So they bring in a mediator who helps them with the process. There is so much on the line that they get real honest with each other and lots of stuff gets drudged up. The characters seemed believable, the casting was great, the pace was good. I would be happy if most of the movies I watch were half as good as this one.

"Dirty clothes are washed at home". That's the "saying" that define these movie. At first, I start seeing these movie because it's show up in the references of IMDb and the name of Juan Pablo Raba and Paco León stand out, well known performers in the Spanish and Latin Cinematography, but I was surprised in the good way by the performance of Juana Acosta. I did not know her but I'm sure will looking more of her in the future. These movies are hard to do, when you only have 5 performers and only one setting you think that would facilitate the live to the director, writers, producers and performers; but nothing further from the truth. For a movie like this work, you need to have and excellent chemistry between the performers and a strong intensity in the dialogue to keep the eye of the viewer interested. That's hard to do, you don't have the landscapes and scenery to entertain the common eye, you don't have the plot to produce fights, gunshots and unbridled violence to quench thirst of the spectators, so you're depending the 99% of the chemistry of you performers. And these movie does exactly that, the chemistry between the performers was so big and well reinforced that if i will recommend these movie to you, the main reason will be because of that. These guys truly can act and I think the dialogue/plot works in favor of them in these one. Of course, you need to be bilingual to enjoy 100% these movies, in the subtitles there are so many things missed sometimes, specially in Netflix. But, if you're a fan of the Spanish Cinematography I will recommend these movie to you: short and well acted. My only complaint will be the finale, oh my, I truly want their friendship collapse in all the possible ways.

Closer to stage drama than to cinema, the film is gripping from start to finish though ;all the cast has to be praised, the actors are of one mind about their screenplay,nobody tries to hog the stage .

The chess game is a transparent metaphor; altough devoid of violence (except for one short sequence) ,this is a story full of sound and fury. False compassion ,false abnegation, a desire to put down your colleague, to show everyone's warts and all .These so called partners tear each other apart during 80 minutes (a short movie, but very dense, with never a dull moment).

One may be disappointed (and infuriated ) by the would be happy end; but it's downright realistic : the wealthy ,the mighty ,the big one often get away;the finest lawyers fees are paid, the strings are pulled , one sees that everyday in the financial (and political world).

Besides ,look at the partners in the final pictures :will they trust each other now? Will they forget what has been said,will they forgive ?

At the beginning the movie is intriguing, with a group of persons who seem to hide something, then trying to give explanations of the situation, the an interesting conversation that reveals details to try to figure out what's hided and how it will evolve. A one room location movie, which is always difficult to digest, therefore the movie seems to flow with a good acting by the 5 protagonists, but then what happens at the end?..... nothing. Absolutely. Is this the way to treat the spectators? There could be a shocking end, or a big surprise, for example... the money floating to the bank and the receiver (one of the four) suiciding and all the money lost. That's just an example of an original end! Therefore my rating is crashing from 6 to 4, just because the end is too corny.

I could not stop watching. You can sense the "train wreck" , just around the corner. And then the neat house of cards comes down, hard. Loved it. The during-end-credits scene confused me since we don't see much about he mediator to read him here, but still a great movie.

...could have been better: since the very beginning it is quite clear who is going to be chosen, but the foreseeable ending has never been a problem for one-room movies because they are based on dialogues.

Unfortunately, it is hard to empathize with these characters, though the actors did great.

I have seen a lot of Spanish movies, and most often I enjoy them. I cannot think of any reason why I should recommend this movie to anyone. It is just boring. Lacks any surprise you're waiting for.