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Groovy Mule -> RE: (22/7/2011 2:12:33 AM)
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Loved it - my favourite film of the year so far.
Starts with a fairly graphic wrist cutting scene - something I have a real squemishness about and always have and I feared that I was going to find this a difficult watch but I was gripped for the rest of the film.
The reason I found the film so gripping is twofold - firstly, the film and its narrative rattle along at quite some pace. There's a lot going on and I suspect that the pacing also allowed me to forgive some of the film's more fanciful plot points or suspensions of disbelief required. The second reason is 2 electric performances from Luis Toser and Alberto Ammann. As prison kingpin Malamadre, Toser is authorative and genuinely menacing and yet, the filmmakers managed to make him sufficiently sympathetic and likeable that you have no trouble believing that the inmates act out of more than fear of him. On the other hand, Ammann manages to tread the tightrope between being sufficiently soft to make his relationship with his pregnant wife believable whilst being sufficient hard-nosed so as to make it credible that he isn't pummelled to death within the first two minutes.
This is high concept taut thriller filmmaking at its best. Catch this before the inevitable Hollywood remake.
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