This amazing Spanish thriller revolves around the fucked up life of a man caught in the web of destiny, deceit, threats and some nefarious and deadly plans.
Director – Oriol Paulo
Based on – The Innocent by Harlan Coben
Cast – Mario Casas, Aura Garrido, Alexandra Jimenez, Martina Gusman, Juana Acosta, Jose Coronado, Ana Wagener, Miki Esparbe,Gonzalo de Castro
Plot
Mateo is a simple young man who ends up being convicted for an unintentional homicide. After he has served his sentence, life gives him a second chance, personally and professionally.
But soon enough destiny catches up on him. His brother dies and his wife vanishes. He is being followed by dangerous people. Worse still, he finds himself on a look out by police.
Meanwhile, somewhere a nun commits suicide. And strangely the Spl Investigation Unit is nose deep in this mumbo jumbo.
And then begins the complicated web that aims to choke his life out.
Analysis
This short series of 8 episodes is a superb mystery thriller in every way. It is superbly engaging, absolutely thrilling and completely suspenseful right till the end.
The best thing is it’s narrative style, absolute mind boggler I tell you.
They introduce you to the main protagonist and his central track. Your heart goes out for him. Then they pick up a new character, introduce its engrossing story and then move on to the next character. While you are completely sucked up on these side tracks, you are at loggerheads to make a connection as to how the hell are they related to that poor woman gone missing.
Each new side track that you see, gives you a different perspective of the situation. And once we are done with all the hard work trying to recapitulate, you get a voice-over telling us the real back story of that character putting to the bin, all the mental hard work that we have done.
This thriller is a real test for those who consider themselves good at solving mysteries. This one’s is going to challenge your faculties big time, often making you doubt if you have been vouching for the right person. If you could map the route your grey cells charted, it would draw a spider’s web.
The story takes you from Mateo’s hell to heaven and then to virtual hells where it dwells for quite some time before giving us climax after innumerous unpredictable twists and turns.
It boasts of a good cast but a special word of appreciation for Mario Casas. He looks natural and understated with the boy next door kind of charm and innocence, tugs at your heart with his plight, and yet maintains the right kind of enigma around his character.
This thriller is highly recommended and a must watch for all thriller lovers. It’s a twisty, turny mind boggler that you would love scratching your heads over.