Reviews

Man breaks into a painter's house. Whilst searching for anything valuable and looking at various photos and sculptures, he stumbles upon a painting that particularly strikes him - a mother and a child, separated through one decisive cut in the middle of the canvas. He gazes at the scenery, whilst the camera lingers on his eyes, when suddenly the painter makes her presence known. The man immediately shoots her. Leaving the crime scene, he encounters the painter's daughter, who gives him a challenging look as if she wants to avenge her mother. The man shoots once again, and the title sequence follows. La madre muerta.

Honestly, I wouldn't have even heard of this movie, had it been not for the fact that I randomly chose a 'European film' module at uni. I've always loved movies, however I never really had a chance to venture out into non-English films. Now I do have the opportunity, and we started with Spanish film. La madre muerta is violent. It's brutal. But also somewhat... moving? Ismael, played by Karra Elejalde, is a psychopath for sure, he kills whenever he pleases, and kidnaps the girl whom he shot at the very beginning, the only difference being she's now mute and mentally impaired. Their dysfunctional, disturbing and completely inappropriate relationship is what makes the movie truly interesting. The inner turmoil of both Ismael and Leire is visible, and both actors give everything they've got, Ana Alvarez especially. I really like how the plot subverts the expectations. You'd think that a character gets away or has enough of a plot armour to remain unseen, and yet Ulloa has no mercy for anyone. I should watch some more movies of Ulloa. This one is a great beginning.

Even though the bad reviews warned me, I still went for the combination of Tony, Audrey and jungle romance. I thought it would end up as a guilty pleasure, sort of a cheesy movie I'd rewatch from time to time. Well, the plan didn't pan out. The idea for the plot wasn't so terrible to begin with, but the weird script, oftentimes bad editing and suprisingly below average acting made the movie not so pleasurable. Yup, I said it - the acting was strange. Now, I've seen Psycho, and I think Tony was hauntingly great in it, but here... it's like he was directed poorly, or the script didn't allow him to do something with this Abel character. His expressions are flat throughout the whole movie, I sort of felt uncomfortable during some of his scenes with Audrey. Now I have a problem with her acting as well. Sadly, it was the first picture of hers I've seen, and seeing how people love her performances in other films, I'm not going to judge her skills. She was weirdly amateur in this, maybe being directed by her husband wasn't so helpful in the process, who knows. The scenery and score were good, I admit that. And I liked Tony singing. But there's nothing more, unfortunately. I might have to rewatch Psycho as rebound.