Mirage
I found it quite entertaining. I would not say it is perfect or that everything fits with the precision it aims for, but it does have something Oriol Paulo handles very well: the ability to hook you with a mystery, open doors, complicate everything and keep you watching even when you feel the mechanism starting to creak. It is a film of tricks, twists and timelines, but it also has enough emotion not to be just a cold puzzle.
The premise already invites you in: an electrical storm, an impossible communication with a boy from the past, a decision that alters Vera's life and a new reality where her daughter does not exist. It is the kind of starting point that could collapse very quickly if the film did not have rhythm, but here the opening works. It has that tone between thriller, melodrama and time fantasy that asks you to accept some rather crazy rules in order to enjoy the ride.
What I liked most is that you swallow it with a certain pleasure. There are films that are irritatingly manipulative, but this one has an attractive delirium. You know it is taking you through a very calculated labyrinth, you know it will hide cards and change the ground under your feet, but the game is quite fun. I did not always believe everything that happened, but I did want to see how on earth it was going to get out of there.
Adriana Ugarte carries the emotional side very well. Vera could have been simply a piece inside the mechanism, but her anguish over recovering her daughter gives weight to the story. The film works best when it remembers that, behind the temporal mystery, there is a desperate mother, someone trapped in a reality that is normal for everyone else but a nightmare for her. That emotional engine helps a lot in making the trick matter.
I also liked Javier Gutiérrez, because he brings a murkier and more everyday area to the story. The film mixes the fantastic with a crime, with neighbors' secrets, crossed lives and that feeling that the past is never completely closed. There Oriol Paulo once again moves in his own territory: guilt, contradictory versions, details that seem accidental and later are not so accidental.
That said, it also has clear excesses. The final part accumulates so many flourishes that at some point the film seems to want to prove how clever it is. Some twists work, others are quite forced and one or two may not have been necessary. The pleasure of the trick is there, but so is the feeling that the script enjoys its own labyrinth too much. Sometimes, by wanting to close every fold, it almost tangles itself further.
The romantic and sentimental side did not always convince me either. When the film becomes affectionate, it can get a little sugary. I understand that it needs an emotional reward, but there are moments when that emotion feels more written than felt. I was more interested in Vera searching for the truth and fighting against an impossible reality than in some of the softer branches of the story.
Even so, the rhythm is very effective. It is quite long, but it rarely stops. There is always a clue, a suspicion, a revelation, a new question or a change of perspective pushing things forward. That is one of its great virtues: even when you notice the cracks, it does not leave you much time to dwell on them. The film runs after its own mystery, and many times it manages to make you run with it.
It is also nice to see Spanish genre cinema playing big. There are obvious references to time-travel stories, communication between eras, butterfly effects and that kind of emotional fantasy where one small intervention can change an entire life. It is not especially original in all its ingredients, but it is made with craft and with well-understood commercial ambition. It wants to entertain, and it largely succeeds.
It may not be Oriol Paulo's most rounded film, but it is a clear example of his virtues and defects. As a storyteller he knows how to hook, how to dose information and how to build a very accessible suspense machine. As a screenwriter, he sometimes forces coincidences and twists too much so that everything fits. That tension between skill and artifice is present throughout.
In the end, it remains for me a notable, enjoyable and somewhat excessive fantasy thriller. I liked it, it kept me inside and it made me accept its madness almost to the end, even if not all its pieces seemed necessary to me. It has good performances, rhythm, emotion, mystery and a touch of delirium that makes it attractive. It is not a masterpiece of the genre, but it is a film you watch with pleasure and it confirms that, when Oriol Paulo decides to play with the viewer, he knows how to do it quite well.
The premise already invites you in: an electrical storm, an impossible communication with a boy from the past, a decision that alters Vera's life and a new reality where her daughter does not exist. It is the kind of starting point that could collapse very quickly if the film did not have rhythm, but here the opening works. It has that tone between thriller, melodrama and time fantasy that asks you to accept some rather crazy rules in order to enjoy the ride.
What I liked most is that you swallow it with a certain pleasure. There are films that are irritatingly manipulative, but this one has an attractive delirium. You know it is taking you through a very calculated labyrinth, you know it will hide cards and change the ground under your feet, but the game is quite fun. I did not always believe everything that happened, but I did want to see how on earth it was going to get out of there.
Adriana Ugarte carries the emotional side very well. Vera could have been simply a piece inside the mechanism, but her anguish over recovering her daughter gives weight to the story. The film works best when it remembers that, behind the temporal mystery, there is a desperate mother, someone trapped in a reality that is normal for everyone else but a nightmare for her. That emotional engine helps a lot in making the trick matter.
I also liked Javier Gutiérrez, because he brings a murkier and more everyday area to the story. The film mixes the fantastic with a crime, with neighbors' secrets, crossed lives and that feeling that the past is never completely closed. There Oriol Paulo once again moves in his own territory: guilt, contradictory versions, details that seem accidental and later are not so accidental.
That said, it also has clear excesses. The final part accumulates so many flourishes that at some point the film seems to want to prove how clever it is. Some twists work, others are quite forced and one or two may not have been necessary. The pleasure of the trick is there, but so is the feeling that the script enjoys its own labyrinth too much. Sometimes, by wanting to close every fold, it almost tangles itself further.
The romantic and sentimental side did not always convince me either. When the film becomes affectionate, it can get a little sugary. I understand that it needs an emotional reward, but there are moments when that emotion feels more written than felt. I was more interested in Vera searching for the truth and fighting against an impossible reality than in some of the softer branches of the story.
Even so, the rhythm is very effective. It is quite long, but it rarely stops. There is always a clue, a suspicion, a revelation, a new question or a change of perspective pushing things forward. That is one of its great virtues: even when you notice the cracks, it does not leave you much time to dwell on them. The film runs after its own mystery, and many times it manages to make you run with it.
It is also nice to see Spanish genre cinema playing big. There are obvious references to time-travel stories, communication between eras, butterfly effects and that kind of emotional fantasy where one small intervention can change an entire life. It is not especially original in all its ingredients, but it is made with craft and with well-understood commercial ambition. It wants to entertain, and it largely succeeds.
It may not be Oriol Paulo's most rounded film, but it is a clear example of his virtues and defects. As a storyteller he knows how to hook, how to dose information and how to build a very accessible suspense machine. As a screenwriter, he sometimes forces coincidences and twists too much so that everything fits. That tension between skill and artifice is present throughout.
In the end, it remains for me a notable, enjoyable and somewhat excessive fantasy thriller. I liked it, it kept me inside and it made me accept its madness almost to the end, even if not all its pieces seemed necessary to me. It has good performances, rhythm, emotion, mystery and a touch of delirium that makes it attractive. It is not a masterpiece of the genre, but it is a film you watch with pleasure and it confirms that, when Oriol Paulo decides to play with the viewer, he knows how to do it quite well.
Mini Review: I found it quite entertaining. I would not say it is perfect or that everything fits with the precision it aims for, but it does have something Oriol Paulo handles very well: the ability to hook you with a mystery, open doors, complicate everything and keep you watching even when you feel the mechanism starting to creak. It is a film of tricks, twists and timelines, but it also has enough emotion not to be just a cold puzzle. The premise already...
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