I am all in favour of realistic thrillers and plausible revenge stories not involving cardboard cut characters and excessive violence. This is that sort of story, but carries the concept of "realistic" a bit too far.
The settings are realistic enough and quite shabby, in suburban Madrid where bartender Ana is waiting for the release of Curro, her criminal husband, jailed for eight years for a botched robbery that left one dead and one in a coma.
Enter silent Josè who seems a much better person than Curro. He befriends Ana's brother, who owns the squalid bar where both siblings work and then insinuates himself into Ana's life.
When Curro is released, trouble starts. First at home, where Ana is not too happy to welcome Curro and then with Josè, who has im mind bloody revenge, being the dead woman beaten to a pulp his fiancee and the man in a come his father.
The plot is compelling and enriched by a twist but unfortunately the Josè character - on which all the plot revolves - is of the catatonic type. "Silent" is not enough to describe him. Josè seems incapable of stringing together a sentence, he just stares at people- and not even in a meaningful way - and proceeds without much discipline with his revengeful quest.
It's hard to sympathise with a schizoid character, even if one can understand his pain, but it also impossible to sympathise with any other character despite their squalid and sadly realistic mediocres lives. The open ending also does not help.
The settings are realistic enough and quite shabby, in suburban Madrid where bartender Ana is waiting for the release of Curro, her criminal husband, jailed for eight years for a botched robbery that left one dead and one in a coma.
Enter silent Josè who seems a much better person than Curro. He befriends Ana's brother, who owns the squalid bar where both siblings work and then insinuates himself into Ana's life.
When Curro is released, trouble starts. First at home, where Ana is not too happy to welcome Curro and then with Josè, who has im mind bloody revenge, being the dead woman beaten to a pulp his fiancee and the man in a come his father.
The plot is compelling and enriched by a twist but unfortunately the Josè character - on which all the plot revolves - is of the catatonic type. "Silent" is not enough to describe him. Josè seems incapable of stringing together a sentence, he just stares at people- and not even in a meaningful way - and proceeds without much discipline with his revengeful quest.
It's hard to sympathise with a schizoid character, even if one can understand his pain, but it also impossible to sympathise with any other character despite their squalid and sadly realistic mediocres lives. The open ending also does not help.