Hm. 19 votes before mine, and a (current) rating of 4.4 out of 10. One does have one's doubts about the IMDb ratings system. On the vote page we can see that only four out of the 19 voters have rated it "4" or less. That doesn't give an average of 4.4 - it would be closer to 5.5. But I guess there's good reasons for the "weighted average" system, as a lot of people tend to vote rather indiscriminately, in either end of the spectrum. The downside is that movies like this, with very few but fairly nuanced votes, receive an official main-page rating that is deceptively low. Doesn't seem quite fair.
Anyway! About the movie. It's good. It can't really be summarized in the usual way without revealing the central mystery of the plot, so I'm going to employ a SPOILER WARNING here. If you want to experience this movie yourself, and you should, then read no further.
*** SPOILER WARNING ***
Although it is not clear from the beginning, the movie is actually a sophisticated revenge drama. A woman, Beatriz, once loved a man, Javier, who was stolen away from her by another, more beautiful woman, Natalia. Natalia then broke up with Javier, who was so distraught that he drove his car into a lake and drowned. Now, Beatriz is out to get revenge on Natalia by setting up a situation where she can do the exact same thing to her. Natalia is interested in dream interpretations, and when she tells a lecturer (during the Q&A session after a lecture) about these dreams, the listening Beatriz realizes that she can use this against Natalia. Gradually, she plants signs from Natalia's dreams in various places, driving Natalia deeper and deeper into nightmarish fear and paranoia. And she also manages, after repeated attempts, to steal Natalia's current boyfriend, Alex, from her. But not quite. When the distraught Natalia ends up trying to kill herself by swallowing a bunch of pills, Beatriz sees that Alex still loves Natalia, and apparently Beatriz then decides that the whole thing has gone on long enough. Natalia survives, and Beatriz ends up asking her forgiveness (without having fully explained what she did to her, though). Revenge is only sweet as long as it is cold, and once Beatriz had her breath taken away by seeing Alex cry about the nearly lifeless Natalia, she could no long maintain the cold and calculating revenge plan. She realized, perhaps, that it was a vicious circle, since she was now doing to Alex what had been done to her.
What makes the movie good is that it keeps the suspense going all the time. We are only alerted to what is actually going on very gradually, through carefully planted clues and details. It successfully keeps you guessing, and for the first part of the movie we even think, along with Natalia, that there might be supernatural forces at work. The true nature of the plot itself comprises the mystery of this movie, and it unravels only little by little as the movie progresses. A nice and original way of serving the plot, keeping open the possibility that it could go in several different directions. And to be honest, there may be some extra dimension to the movie that I simply haven't divined. At least I have a feeling that there might be.
But, overall, a nice and very European movie. I'll rate it a 7 out of 10 for being good and worthwhile - it can certainly stand a couple of watchings, where one might see a lot more details in the early parts. The two main female actresses are both very good.
On the other hand, there are elements of the plot that don't seem credible. Beatriz doesn't seem like a person hateful enough to go through with such a long and calculated revenge plan. And if Natalia stole Javier from her, how come Natalia didn't know Beatriz at all? It all seems to fit together a bit too nicely. Also, as you go into the movie, hearing about monoliths (yeah, the ones from "2001"!) and strange signs, you kind of expect an element of the fantastic, but this turns out not to be there. So, a 7 it is. But I do recommend it.
Anyway! About the movie. It's good. It can't really be summarized in the usual way without revealing the central mystery of the plot, so I'm going to employ a SPOILER WARNING here. If you want to experience this movie yourself, and you should, then read no further.
*** SPOILER WARNING ***
Although it is not clear from the beginning, the movie is actually a sophisticated revenge drama. A woman, Beatriz, once loved a man, Javier, who was stolen away from her by another, more beautiful woman, Natalia. Natalia then broke up with Javier, who was so distraught that he drove his car into a lake and drowned. Now, Beatriz is out to get revenge on Natalia by setting up a situation where she can do the exact same thing to her. Natalia is interested in dream interpretations, and when she tells a lecturer (during the Q&A session after a lecture) about these dreams, the listening Beatriz realizes that she can use this against Natalia. Gradually, she plants signs from Natalia's dreams in various places, driving Natalia deeper and deeper into nightmarish fear and paranoia. And she also manages, after repeated attempts, to steal Natalia's current boyfriend, Alex, from her. But not quite. When the distraught Natalia ends up trying to kill herself by swallowing a bunch of pills, Beatriz sees that Alex still loves Natalia, and apparently Beatriz then decides that the whole thing has gone on long enough. Natalia survives, and Beatriz ends up asking her forgiveness (without having fully explained what she did to her, though). Revenge is only sweet as long as it is cold, and once Beatriz had her breath taken away by seeing Alex cry about the nearly lifeless Natalia, she could no long maintain the cold and calculating revenge plan. She realized, perhaps, that it was a vicious circle, since she was now doing to Alex what had been done to her.
What makes the movie good is that it keeps the suspense going all the time. We are only alerted to what is actually going on very gradually, through carefully planted clues and details. It successfully keeps you guessing, and for the first part of the movie we even think, along with Natalia, that there might be supernatural forces at work. The true nature of the plot itself comprises the mystery of this movie, and it unravels only little by little as the movie progresses. A nice and original way of serving the plot, keeping open the possibility that it could go in several different directions. And to be honest, there may be some extra dimension to the movie that I simply haven't divined. At least I have a feeling that there might be.
But, overall, a nice and very European movie. I'll rate it a 7 out of 10 for being good and worthwhile - it can certainly stand a couple of watchings, where one might see a lot more details in the early parts. The two main female actresses are both very good.
On the other hand, there are elements of the plot that don't seem credible. Beatriz doesn't seem like a person hateful enough to go through with such a long and calculated revenge plan. And if Natalia stole Javier from her, how come Natalia didn't know Beatriz at all? It all seems to fit together a bit too nicely. Also, as you go into the movie, hearing about monoliths (yeah, the ones from "2001"!) and strange signs, you kind of expect an element of the fantastic, but this turns out not to be there. So, a 7 it is. But I do recommend it.