Spain's industry -or, to better say, some young filmmakers and studios- are producing fine thrillers lately. "The body" feels like the last installment of a trilogy of movies all produced by the studios Rodar y Rodar and all starred by Belen Rueda, the first being the awarded and applauded "The orphanage".
Anyway, "The body" is an entirely different movie with very different goals, and it is more similar to the second movie, "Julia's eyes": it's a fast-paced thriller filled with twists, red herrings and a satisfactory ending. It follows young Alex, recently widowed of his older and richer wife, Mayka, who died of a sudden heart attack. Mayka was the owner of several pharmaceutical companies and is portrayed as a woman with a strange sense of humor and a domineering personality. This part of the movie is quite well done, because we are well informed of the peculiarities of this couple, even when the movie doesn't take a lot of time for this description (it's all done in flashbacks). Anyway, the action begins when Mayka's body goes missing from the morgue it was stored at, which brings police detective Jaime Peña to the crime scene.
Shortly thereafter, we learn that Alex has an affair with young and beautiful Carla, and that they have both plotted and executed the murder of Mayka. But the questions promptly arise in the characters' and the viewers' mind: is Mayka really dead? If so, who snatched the body, and with what purpose? And if she isn't dead, what happened and where is she?
Mayka is nowhere to be seen, but, dead or alive, her presence quickly infects the place, plaguing Alex's mind and making him fearful for whatever may be happening. Jaime Peña is deeply suspicious of him from the get-go and quickly becomes a fierce adversary to Alex.
As the search for the missing body goes on, Alex and Peña struggle to find out the truth, each with his own motive. And so does the viewer. The whole story unfolds in a bleak setting -a morgue, in the middle of the night-, with some winks to the supernatural, giving the movie the looks and feel of an extended "Tales from the crypt" episode.
"The body" is a good thriller that really delivers. The script takes some liberties in order to bamboozle the viewer, but -in my opinion- such liberties are not only inevitable but also forgivable (although many will probably differ). Ultimately, "The body" achieves what it set out for: grab our interest from the start, follow the story closely, keep guessing and changing our mind as to what really happened, and provide us with an ending that, even though it is not perfect and could be regarded as far-fetched, is quite fulfilling and fitting for this story and its characters.
The acting by the main four actors is good, the strongest man being the well-respected Spanish actor Jose Coronado.
Anyway, "The body" is an entirely different movie with very different goals, and it is more similar to the second movie, "Julia's eyes": it's a fast-paced thriller filled with twists, red herrings and a satisfactory ending. It follows young Alex, recently widowed of his older and richer wife, Mayka, who died of a sudden heart attack. Mayka was the owner of several pharmaceutical companies and is portrayed as a woman with a strange sense of humor and a domineering personality. This part of the movie is quite well done, because we are well informed of the peculiarities of this couple, even when the movie doesn't take a lot of time for this description (it's all done in flashbacks). Anyway, the action begins when Mayka's body goes missing from the morgue it was stored at, which brings police detective Jaime Peña to the crime scene.
Shortly thereafter, we learn that Alex has an affair with young and beautiful Carla, and that they have both plotted and executed the murder of Mayka. But the questions promptly arise in the characters' and the viewers' mind: is Mayka really dead? If so, who snatched the body, and with what purpose? And if she isn't dead, what happened and where is she?
Mayka is nowhere to be seen, but, dead or alive, her presence quickly infects the place, plaguing Alex's mind and making him fearful for whatever may be happening. Jaime Peña is deeply suspicious of him from the get-go and quickly becomes a fierce adversary to Alex.
As the search for the missing body goes on, Alex and Peña struggle to find out the truth, each with his own motive. And so does the viewer. The whole story unfolds in a bleak setting -a morgue, in the middle of the night-, with some winks to the supernatural, giving the movie the looks and feel of an extended "Tales from the crypt" episode.
"The body" is a good thriller that really delivers. The script takes some liberties in order to bamboozle the viewer, but -in my opinion- such liberties are not only inevitable but also forgivable (although many will probably differ). Ultimately, "The body" achieves what it set out for: grab our interest from the start, follow the story closely, keep guessing and changing our mind as to what really happened, and provide us with an ending that, even though it is not perfect and could be regarded as far-fetched, is quite fulfilling and fitting for this story and its characters.
The acting by the main four actors is good, the strongest man being the well-respected Spanish actor Jose Coronado.