Intacto (2002)

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Don't listen to the negative reviews

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

luck, love, survive. the fairy tale atmosphere and the flavor of Oriental old story. and, sure, Max van Sydow. more than a film, it is a challenge. to reflect and to discover the real significant things who defines the life. in same measure, it is a game of appearances. the need of them. the science to make difference between shadows and reality. not the last, it is a beautiful film. for cinematography , off course, but for the memories about other similar scenes. in same measure, it is an answer. to the need to define yourself . and to use the dreams as concrete of life.

tale about luck. prey. survive. a kind of parable and, in same measure, map of a world. page from description of people out of masks. axis - Max Von Sydow as Sam, powerful god of a small hided universe, with ash of Shoah in his soul, cold, profound, enigmatic, master of strange power. so, the movie is more than a fantastic puzzle. it is a way to explore fears and games, escapes and fragile victory, need of answers - Sara -, search of real sense of things - Tomas - hope to control reality - Federico.for each - the same labyrinth. and wings of same darkness. in essence, a lot of questions, beautiful music and dark feeling at end.

I've found the best way to view a film is to know absolutely nothing about it prior to first watching it. I put on Intacto, knowing only that it had faired well in some very well known film festivals, including Sundance, and that there was a man running with a blindfold on on the cover. That said, I found this film captivating. It was interesting from start to finish, giving the viewer just enough information to understand the film, yet leaving some questions for the viewer to think about days later. In Director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo's world, luck is something that certain people in the world have a power over, and those with that gift have the ability to steal luck from others from just a mere touch on the arm. What really makes this film exciting to watch, is the extreme lengths that those who have this gift will go to, gambling on who the luckiest person is. There were a lot of things I liked. For starters, the film-making in general was perfect. Everything looked beautiful, the pacing was great, and the actors were phenomenal. With the script at hand, they could not of done a better job. By not being straight forward with all the information, it's very fun trying to watch and figure out, what's coming next. There were, however, a few things I didn't like, or understand. I was a little confused by the inconsistencies in the language. It seemed like half the time the characters were speaking Spanish and other times they were speaking English. It didn't do anything to effect how enjoyable the movie was, I just didn't understand it. More importantly the movie was missing something in the plot area. The premise of the movie was very original and intriguing, but the central story line lacked compassionate characters, and a certain amount of believability even within its own implausible world. For instance, if these people are so lucky, how did they get stuck gambling there lives in underground casinos? Why is our main character forced to succumb to a life of bank robbery if he's one of the luckiest men in the world? Ultimately though, the film leaves you with a lot to think, and talk about. It's very entertaining, and at times, you'll be emotionally drawn to it. For me, that's all I look for in a good movie.

While it's no chore to get the premise of this film at the start, certain people can take the "luck" of others, there's several points in the first half-hour that are muddled and may cause viewers to wonder who's who and what are they in the film for. If you are adept enough to get beyond that, all will become apparent and the film will be very satisfying. Of course the premise is so absurd that a great suspension of belief will be needed, but this is no more absurd than any really good fright flick, and most weird sci-fi. It is a quasi-fantasy thriller that sets itself up as a realistic drama with elements of the fantastic, but nothing terribly bizarre so that we then view it as completely realistic. Not an easy thing to do with a subject matter that could have become laughable. There are enough points of departure from the idea that luck is destiny so to give control to the participants of the games of luck. Now what about the possibility of getting the bad luck as well as the good? But that's a premise for a different film.