"Sometimes the world of the living gets mixed up with the world of the dead"

Rating: 8/10 (22 January 2019)

While I watched it several times since it came out, until a moment ago I had no idea that the film is Spanish. And not only is it Spanish, but it's also the only film that has ever won the award for the best Spanish film, without having a word in Spanish. Although the original script was written in Spanish, it was translated into English, it stars an Australian woman playing an English woman, it's backed by Americans and the story is placed in Jersey, but it is filmed in Spain and directed by Spaniard. IMDb classifies him as a horror/mystery/thriller, but even though the story itself is a mystery and perhaps somewhat a thriller, and the film has an atmosphere that balances on the verge of horror, in my opinion, essentially, this is primarily a strong psychological drama. Nicole Kidman once again proves her acting size and steals every scene in which she appears, but the rest of the team are not to be underestimated, especially eleven-year-old Alakina Mann. One of the strongest features of this film should be the surprise brought by the final plot twist, but since I saw it several times, I knew what would happen, and I really can not remember whether I predicted this twist or not when I first watched it, almost two decades ago, and if I did, in which part of the film it happened, and therefore I can not comment on its effectiveness. But even without the mindfak factor, this movie has a lot of qualities and deserves a high rating.
8,5/10