Review of La influencia

La influencia (2007)
6/10
Depressing and uncomfortable for sure
12 April 2016
Warning: Spoilers
Watched this on mubi.com. Not quite sure what to think of it. It does have it's good things, the atmosphere is quite spot on as it really does ooze depression and despair. It's quite well shot and the editing is interesting at times. Artistically more than fine. Acting is OK for the most part, altho it seems there's a lot of improvisation. I don't know if the moms actress portrays an accurate image of a depressed person, she's mostly just gazing to horizon, showing (understandably) zero emotion. The teenage daughter is quite natural, and her kid brother also, altho a few of the more emotional "acting" scenes are a bit forced.

I'm not 100 % convinced of how the kids reacted to moms deepening depression towards the end. I don't have first hand experience, but since their mom was as good as dead in the end some of their actions felt a bit strange. I can understand that a young boy of circa 3 years old might just keep busy doing all sorts of things around the house, but I'd think a teenage daughter might actually try and get some help. On the other hand the portrayal may be very accurate.

I was quite disappointed with the ending, after an hour and a half of watching tormented and depressed woman and her kids you'd expect some kind of resolution, but I guess the ending was quite fitting for this kind of movie.
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