Absolutely Fantastic

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Blistering performances.

Spanish action/thriller story about desperate as well as enigmatic people intertwined by destiny are subject to the laws of luck and fate . But destiny is hard to care with the rules changing at any moment . The film contains suspenseful and hair rising images and a sinister, mysterious atmosphere . This mystery movie trips at the first hurdle with a staggeringly banal angle on fate . A weird tale of four people whose lives are mingled and they then discover that luck is something they cannot afford to be without as they gamble with the highest stakes possible in a deadly game from which only one of them will emerge intact , but not that incoherence is the main problem . It deals with four players , each the sole survivor a catastrophe , vie for supremacy in some dangerous deeds . There is Tomas (Leonardo Sbaraglia) , a stealer who survives a plane crash , Sam (Max Von Sidow) , a Holocaust survivor who lives in a casino in the desert ; Federico (Eusebio Poncela) who survived an earthquake and Sara (Monica Lopez) , a policewoman who walked away from a car crash that murdered her family and becomes obsessed with uncovering the truth behind a clandestine gambling ring where death and luck intermingle . As good fortune , we're asked to believe , not only exist , but can be transferred and robbed through physical contact , even with photographs . In the flick happens rare happenings , such as an insect lands on a treacle-smothered head , a sprint blindfold through the forest knocking themselves and many other things . The picture displays thriller , mystery , suspense , shocks , grisly scenes and intriguing events when a motley group crosses ways until an amazing finale . Intriguing film contains thrills , chills , suspense , twists and turns , and results to be quite entertaining . The atmosphere and perverse intrigue enhance as well as the relationship among protagonist develops . From start to finish the intrigue and suspenseful scenes are continuous till a striking ending . The film plays with various concepts as Russian roulette , hooded faces , blessed survivors , casualty , luck , random and destiny . It has a couple of twists piled on top of one central twist concerning about a startling meeting and a strange quality which bears the misfit group who seems to be a supernatural deed . Attractive set pieces pass the time along with magnificent production design . Screenplay does something strange by the end : it actually removes the stakes of everything that came before with its trio of revelations that at first test and then demolish any credulity the movie had built up by that point . Nice performances from Leonardo Sbaraglia , a young thief and the sole survivor of a horrific plane crash ; Eusebio Poncela , who survived a massive earthquake and discovered he has the power to rob those around him of their good fortune with a touch and Max Von Sidow , a casino owner who is the ultimate survivor after losing everything but his own life in the terrible conflagration that enveloped Europe during the Second World War . Support cast is frankly well such as Paz Gomez , Guillermo Toledo and special mention to Antonuio Dechent . Xavi Gimenez cinematography is excellent creating a frightening and scary atmosphere , he's expert on sombre photography (Fragile , Agora , Red lights , Nameless) . Being filmed on location in Las Cañadas del Teide, La Orotava, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain . The film crew could not get permission for filming from a helicopter in the National Park of "Las Cañadas del Teide", so they used a remote controlled mini-helicopter . Sensitive as well as thrilling musical score by Lucio Godoy (Blackthorn , Fin , All about my mother , Mataharis , Triage) . Director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (Intacto , 28 Weeks Later) isn't exactly a visionary director like the film bills him as, but he is good at approaching films with style and consistent moods . The director made an editing the film was a big challenge , it was a long, complex process because of the story's complex structure. The film will appeal to suspense buffs , as it gets some decent set pieces , though sometimes chaotic thriller , however , resulting to be a good flick .

An interesting idea - transferable luck - is padded out with a cops-and-robbers tale, as if the writers didn't feel the central idea was strong enough to sustain a whole movie. As it happens, what works in INTACTO derives from that interesting idea, and what doesn't work stems from the conventional stuff.The uneven whole is held together by its charismatic leading man (Leonardo Sbaraglia), doggedly supported by Eusebio Poncela and the effortless gravitas of Max von Sydow. Mónica López does her best as the pursuing detective, but I found myself indifferent to whether or not she bagged her quarry.

Like pieces on a chess board, the lucky or unlucky characters move, capture, or are lost. The movie asks the viewer to suspend his beliefs regarding random outcomes, and buy into the theory that some people can get luckier by taking luck from others, while leaving the losers unlucky. There is very little character development, and the confusing story loses steam between "games". The concept certainly is different, and that alone makes "Intacto" watchable. Marginally recommended for admirers of films that are creative but could require some patience from the viewer. A second viewing might be mandatory for even marginal comprehension. - MERK

There are a few good filmmakers alive now, ones I credit. Mostly they are distributed in accidental pools of the industry, a couple in Hong Kong, a master in Amsterdam, a few passing through Hollywood it seems. Singles here and there. But there are three film communities that when I enter them, I feel as if I am entering a magical kitchen of imagemaking shared by a single family. The blood pumping between one pair of lovers, the enhanced tongue of another, the wild creative dialog about spices among a young crowd in the corner — each of these somehow providing juices I will taste.One of these kitchens is Australian, another Canadian (oh how puzzling!). But this big saucy one is Spanish, with emissaries all over the Americas. Not every Spanish film is nourishing, but when I find one that has serious ambitions, it more often than not inherits all the smells, traditions and many of the skills of that kitchen, that world.Superficially, this is an ambitious project, with a young filmmaker whose visual skills aren't unusual, and he has been helped by a crew that pulls off most of the cinematic needs of his scenes. The techniques themselves aren't very striking.See this. It is not full of new ways of seeing story, as you find with Medem. It has no novel parallel narratives as you'll often find. But it parallels it does have, else it wouldn't be in this tradition I like so much of magical overlays of reality, up and down.What is striking is the typically Spanish shape of the thing. Folded realities, agents of fate placed among us, the narrative as game that includes a game. The tokens of the game as images and placed in images we "win." Some players as noir characters, others as filmmakers in the thing.This juxtaposition of noir-related game with gambling with images with conflating images in the film with images of the film is unique. Remember when you saw the first film of a gifted filmmaker, and began a rewarding life with a new friend? Here's one for you, a new friend. I do not think he will disappoint.Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.