Back in the day, a
story like The Usual Suspects seemed possible, even if it was
not very plausible and that was a stellar example of movie magic
crowning the almighty, all-powerful ghost-like Kaiser Söze as one of
the strongest villains of all time. However, the film has aged pretty
badly and has lost some of its value (based on novelty) after a
number of clones. Having that in mind, I would not say the label “The
Spanish Usual Suspects” attached to Oriol Paulo’s The
Invisible Guest is exactly the most flattering one.
The good thing is
that Paulo’s slick Spanish thriller is not a clone even though the
structure of a mystery inside of an interrogation story is quite
similar and the final revelation is a bit too much of a Kaiser Söze
moment. The reason for that is the very central locked room-type
murder mystery which has been constructed properly and widened
intelligently to another murder having in mind the perks of
contemporary lifestyle like cell phone communication.
A witness
preparation expert attorney Virginia Goodman (Ana Wagener)
comes to the high-rise apartment of a wealthy and influential
businessman Adrián Doria (Mario Casas) accused of murder of
his former lover Laura (Bárbara Lennie) in a secluded hotel.
He maintains his innocence stating that there was someone else in the
room, a man who knocked him out and murdered Laura, although there
are no traces of such presence and no motive for that at all. The
fact is, however, that they were both blackmailed and the scheme had
something to do not just with their secret affair, but also with a
fatal car accident they were involved in a couple of months before.
There are two possible suspects for such a scheme: one is a passer-by
who saw them faking a minor accident to cover up the death of a young
man in another car, while the other one is a local man, as it turns
to be the deceased man’s father (José Coronado), who picked
Laura up some hours later and fixed their car.
One of those two men
is the new key witness for prosecution and Adrián’s hotshot lawyer
had no choice but to hire Virginia to train his client for the
testimony according to the new information. But for that, she has to
know the truth which seems unlikely with Adrián’s poorly
constructed lies and half-truths. And the time is ticking away, of
course.
Ana Wagener serves
well as an Agatha Christie-style detective battling against
Adrián’s arrogance played with gusto by Mario Casas, but the main
reason everything works so well up to a point is Oriol Paulo’s
creative decision to go with numerous possibilities from different
angles rather than to reveal the truth. It makes sense: it is not the
truth that will set her client free, a bullet-proof narrative is the
thing, the whole truth is just a tool for the desired outcome.
However, the whole thing gets tiresome after several small twists and
revelations, and the heavy-hitting turns at the finale do not do any
good. Still, Paulo (the writer of Julia’s Eyes and the
writer-director of The Body) is someone who should be watched
closely and who will have his word in the future of Spanish and
European genre cinema.
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