Movie Review: La Cara Oculta (the Hidden Face) [2011]

It's an erotic 90 minutes of thrilling mystery

La Cara Oculta is a classic thriller directed by Andrés Baiz. Before you go to the end of my review you might think that it's one of those cheap dramas of desperate love and relationships. That is really what I thought during first five minutes, when everything went "as it always is" - a girl dumps lifelong boyfriend and disappears. Then the guy gets drunk in pub and fucks first woman he grabs, who turns out to be a waitress. 

But then the movie suggests something, which is extraordinary tale of physical  mental and spiritual suffer caused by your own mistakes and  treason. 

Adrian is an young, talented Spanish orchestra conductor who moved to Columbia with girlfriend Belen. They truly love each other, but Adrien has a bad habit - he makes out with every single girl he meets. One day, Belen just decides to give him a lesson and disappear. With the help of an old woman - an owner of the house the couple rents (not giving any clue how she disappears, you need to see it), she successfully implements her plans. But she never knew the consequences of her own actions...

Here are some things which I really loved and enjoyed. First of all, the story itself - an engaging, rapid developing and heartbreaking script that made say WOW almost every minute. Beginning of the film is kind of plain, there is not much happening but it helps to discover every character. However, some twenty minutes later everything goes mad, thrilling emotions ran through my whole body when I started to realize the story behind mirrors.

This movie would be nothing without such dramatic performances by Clara Lago (Belen) and Quim Gutiérrez (Adrien), who do an outstanding job fully exposing characters and their physical or spiritual pain. I truly experienced every emotion they had, that's why I paused video three or four time to relax. And maybe these emotional link made me so fervent.

I'd love to write much more about this film, I could but not without spoilers. And spoilers will ruin everything this movie is worth of.