Night Runner (2009)

Redundant and unnecessary.

Overrated

One of my all time favorites.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

The chance meeting between Eduardo, an Argentine insurance executive with Raimundo Conti at an airport, sets this thriller in motion. Both men are heading for Buenos Aires, where Eduardo lives with his therapist wife and two children. Little does Eduardo realize his new found friend will turn up all over the place to make his life impossible.Eduardo, who stands to go far in his company, has been instrumental in shady dealings in the company. As a matter of fact, his trip to Italy did not yield the results his boss, Mr. Harrison was expecting. The widow of a former co-worker comes to claim a payment she never got after his death. There are other incidents in his mind.Conti begins to be a pest. Eduardo cannot get rid of the man. When he begins getting videos about his daughter playing in a park, he gets worried. Eduardo even buys a gun to put an end to the intruder's harassment in his life. Fortunately for Eduardo things change with the mysterious death of his boss. But will his troubles be over?Gerardo Herrero has been producing films for quite some time, while directing a handful of his projects. Nicolas Saad adapted the novel of Hugo Burel into this thriller of modern noir overtones. The only problem is Mr. Herrero wastes time in trivial matters in Eduardo's career that are never resolved. The ending is obscure, at best, leaving it to the viewer's interpretation, although Conti might be a creation in Eduardo's mind. Basically this is a two-character film. Leonardo Sbaraglia and Miguel Angel Sola compliment one another with ease. Mr. Sbaraglia has the meatier part of Eduardo. Miguel Angel Sola plays the menacing Conti with panache. The camera work of Alfredo Mayo enhances the production taking the viewer in the modern city of business and pleasure. Lucio Godoy contributed with a film score that serves the movie well.

At the beginning, we may guess that we are watching another classic movie about a psycho, but we are lured by this well crafted story to another more complex level, where all we know about the main characters is doubtful. A strong acting duel lead by Miguel Angel Sola and Leonardo Sbaraglia, can be watched and enjoyed as a thriller. But, in fact, this solid film is an allegory inspired by Nietzsche's ideas about morality, basically, wealth, strength, health, and power (an ancient Greek hero) count as good; while bad is associated with the poor, weak, sick, and pathetic (the sort of traits conventionally associated with slaves in ancient times). The chilling performance of Sola, an strange atmosphere and great dialogs support this very interesting film.