The Scenery was spectacular, the acting, wonderful, and I thoroughly enjoyed the film.
5.9Plot summary
1998. Isabel is a young girl who moves Vigo, Pontevedra (Galicia, northwest to Spain) to make her practices as journalist, but her new boss Don Mauricio only orders her the section of the obituaries. Reluctant to make the job, in her first day she receives an anonymous letter about a woman named Lucía. Talking with Don Mauricio, Isabel each year in the same day since 15 years ago the newspaper receives the same obituary, but this last letter, that it was sent before the usual. Puzzled about it, Isabel gets permission of Don Mauricio to investigate, discovering that the man responsible to write the letters, Gonzalo, lives in a house close to a riff. However, when she travels to the place, she not finds Gonzalo but Carlos, Gonzalo's son, who explains her that his father passed away a few days ago. Telling him the obituaries Gonzalo wrote, Carlos accepts Isabel's offer for working together to investigate about Lucía not only because Lucía wasn't his name's mother, but the chance to know better to his father. Following the trace of the obituaries, Lucía and Carlos discovers that the story starts in 1958, when a young Gonzalo travels to Jérez de la Frontera, Cádiz (Andalusia, south to Spain) to meet his close friend Hernán, a vintner belonging a long-tradition family of grapes cultivators to produce wine, hoping to design his new big wine cellar. Living in the family house, Gonzalo meets Hernán's parents Mercedes and Evaristo, his young sister Adela, and to his promised-to-marry girlfriend, Lucía. Quiet and man of few words, Gonzalo lives for his job even ignoring Adela's love interest on him. But their plans for success force Hernán to travel Sevilla to close an important deal, leaving Lucía as temporary boss. Working with her, Gonzalo feels attracted to her, learning that their marriage is arranged by their respective families to increase their riches. Realizing that Gonzalo is fall in love with her, Lucía agrees to his love and the two live in secret their passion, but two unexpected troubles appear on their way: Hernán returns to home before the time and Adela discovers Gonzalo's affair with Lucía, dying while she was escaping of Gonzalo when she falls to a well hide by old planks. According Isabel and Carlos continue investigating, they not only discover the consequences of Adela's death and the ultimate fate of Lucía, but the effect that the story have on themselves.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
Director
Top cast
María Pedraza as Adela
Carlos Cuevas as Carlos
Blanca Suárez as Lucía Vega
Javier Rey as Gonzalo
Tech specs
720p.BLU 1080p.BLU 720p.WEB 1080p.WEB 1.08 GB
1280*534
Spanish 2.0
NR
Movie Reviews
Reviewed by
Beautifully Done!
Reviewed by
On the contrary, this is a very beautiful movie.
I have to point out to rauural, the one and only reviewer who wrongfully abused this movie without even seeing it. This is a Spanish movie, not a French like what he blindly sneered at. It's beautifully shot in the Galician, area, an autonomous community in Spain's northwest, is a verdant region with an Atlantic coastline. The love story happened in a huge local vineyard. We used to see movies telling romances happened in the French wine country, but this movie provided us with a totally different triangle love story that happened in the wine country of Spain. The actors performed quite well, handsome and pretty, a completely different outcome against what that rauural reviewer said in his(or her) 28 Feb 2021 review. Again, even I don't speak Spanish language, I at least know it's not a French movie and, you can easily find English subtitles on the web.
Reviewed by
Too shiny surface layer in a poor film
The movie runs without an intelligent and measured creative work. Has a great production, great actors but imho is a continuous demonstration of lack of creative direction, just a good technical jobs becomes in a nice wrapping for a quick consumption product.
I am not an author cinema's fan. I am not a sybarite. I am not enjoy a French film from unknown actors and director in OST without subtitles.
Photography is beautiful, although colors are way generally too saturated, searching with too much effort Instagram looks all the time (or Lalaland effect in a pair of scenes). As I said, great production, locations are marvelous and show a part of Spain I don't know and I became willing to know.
The cast is very interesting, few of the quality sparks in the film proceed or are related to the actors and actresses. Blanca Suarez and Javier Rey characters share great connection moments, and some others show they are over the general creative quality of the results. Nerveless these good tools, actors direction are very poor, with over response, super drama and lack of general tone. Suarez do a great job transmitting just with her glance, but as I said, just sparks in a storm.
The script is horrible. Using flashbacks from a recent past to a further one, pretends involve the viewer but just dislocate and cuts the action every time does one time jump. Lack of sense, logic, awful and forced characters responses are common all along the movie. Time movement perception is compressed and altered in such way that makes hard to believe most of scene situations. And main events in the plot are completely mad and illogical. Just a shallow guideline review reveals big logical holes for such and intense life changing and allegedly passionate events, Plenty of clichés again and without further development of personality or characters.
Music is a good surprise in certain moments but is not connected with the action. Beautiful but without purpose or anchorage. Sometimes is too loud related to what is happening in the scene.. common to recent netflix Spanish successful productions as The cable girls.
As I said, cast, production and photography are good enough to query the director's labor. How many resources are wasted and how many restraints wre involved are not in my sight to evaluate, but I can talk about the results. No way these talk good about his work. Photography, montage, script, actors direction... Shots and framing maybe are good individually but globally seems a videoclip or a showreel for the directors capability, not related to a global sense for the movie. It just hurts to write, I am not an angry hater, just feeling the opposite, a light sadness and deception due to there are enough beautiful things to do a great movie and the results are too far of that.