Brilliant, edge of the seat thriller

Rating: 9/10 (23 August 2010)

This Argentinian film start slowly for me and felt a little formulaic in it's story. Yet it progresses well and becomes more and more engaging. This is helped by some fine performances, the fact it looks beautiful and there is some nice orchestration throughout.
Just as the character if Benjamin becomes consumed by the murder of a young woman and him and his colleague try in vain to find the culprit, we the audience are suddenly drawn into this world inextricably. We too long for answers, we too see the love the grieving husband has, hoping only to know who did this to his wife. His love and the strength of it shocks both us and Benjamin.
The was a point in the film where I was utterly consumed by the story; as the camera soars over the soccer stadium, i was stunned by the brilliance of the scene as the cameras then becomes part of the soccer crowd. Following that we are thrown into chaos as they search and find the suspect only for a fast and thrilling, yet brief chase ensues. I think it is one of the finest scenes in a film I've witnessed, so brilliantly executed. From this point on the film doesn't let go: The scene of interrogation, as the suspect is broken down or many years later when he enters the lift and removes a gun, the camera holds still as we see the fear and tears across the faces of Benjamin and Irene, the scene is so amazing, my body tensed up until the very last moment. The film is at times tense, sometimes funny and often very moving, I thought that it encaptures so many emotions so well, all that one would expect, for instance when Morales is informed of his wife's death, the control of the director settles on Morales as he mumbles away, stifling back tears as the news sinks in.
The film is perhaps let down by the desire or love between Benjamin and Irene, one that plays out throughout the story and is eventually resolved by the end, although the use of the motif of her running after the train at he start and then at the end of the film is nicely done. Despite this there is little to fault the the film, which is a near masterpiece and deservedly won Best Foreign film at the 2010 Oscars.
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