Nobody's Life

I just watched this movie at the Santo Domingo International Film Festival. While watching the movie I had the feeling that I have seen a movie with a similar story before...a movie with Ray Liotta but I can't remember much of it. Of course, this one is a lot more dramatic, especially at the end.

This is the story: Emilio's life becomes a lie that he can not longer sustain. After 20 years lying about his entire life to his wife, son and all the people he knows, the truth is chasing him and there is nowhere to go.

Watching Emilio make up lies is exiting and funny but after a while you get tired of the same thing...the affair with a young girl was supposed to ad something but it doesn't. Despite that the movie is still funny, exiting and involving. Either it makes you want to help Emilio with his lies or help everybody else catch him. I liked the analogies, photography and the good performances.

7.5 out of 10.

Of course, how could he. He obviously co-opted several aspects from that excellent movie, which was also based on the sensational French case of the self-described "doctor in the World Health Organization" who murdered his family and himself when finally unmasked as a fraud. Emilio refers to his son as "monster," he sings to the radio in his car, he hangs out on park benches, and he specializes in investment schemes to defraud his family and friends -- all of this and more directly lifted from "Time Out," which came out the year before "Nobody's Life." It's too bad because this movie is pretty good on its own, with good acting and writing. Whereas Vincent from "Time Out" is a much more subtle character who seems to have a sense of ethics even though at times it gets twisted into knots, the protagonist here seems devoid of any character at all save for his winning looks and charm. Seriously, the part where he used X-rays that show his mother-in-law's cancer to bilk more money from his father, then utilizes a subtle twist on the same scam to avoid eviction from his fancy home for failing to pay the lease on time -- it's almost too much. The guy has no shame whatsoever, In fact, he's more like the lead in "Stepfather" than some poor schmuck who gets fired and is so humiliated that he can't face the disappointment of his family and friends and feels forced to invent a shiny new life for himself, as Vincent did in "Time Out." Thus, one could feel the tension mounting in "Nobody's Life" and the violent conclusion coming. One thing "Nobody's Life" has that "Time Out" definitely lacked was a love interest apart from the protagonist's trusting wife. It's not hard to understand how the sexy babysitter was able to fascinate and ensnare Emile to the degree that he ignored the danger of her natural curiosity and allowed it to lay bare his less than carefully constructed con. Given the reservations mentioned, this is a pretty good movie that we found entertaining. If you long for something touching on similar elements that goes a might deeper and is more intellectually and spiritually satisfying, I strongly suggest "Time Out."

Good movie, tense and dramatic with some parts that made me laugh. But, as the movie goes it become more tensile since you expecting bad things to happen. Jose Coronado is great, after watching this movie I've searched for others where he also did very well.

The one thing that I was thinking of is what did he done with all his free time, he couldn't sit on a bench for years :)

Very good movie, very tasteful throughout including well placed nudity. This is not a happy movie, as it aims at showing family life that is not happy, but not tragic either. As you watch you get a feeling of mundane daily depressing life and people just doing things because that is what people do in life. It is just a man, a woman, their kid and a babysitter navigating their daily routines. The whole movie revolves around that, the characters normal daily lives. Nothing special happens at all. There are no magic events, not glamorous plots... just daily life. So how do you make that interesting to watch? Well, you take well written characters, have them cast with good actors and have a good script to back it up.

The highlight and pivotal element here is that Emilio is a scam through and through. We are shown that he is a liar early on and throughout the movie that continues to be reinforced. Everything about him is a lie, and as the movie progresses we are shown more of his lies and how they affect those around him. We almost want to feel for him as he tries to hang onto his life of lies he has built but at the same time, we also see how he continues to manipulate and create more lies to keep the old lies "true" and you get a sense of disgust about him. You know it will all crash at the end; you watch and shake your head wanting to say to him - STOP, but alas, you cannot do that. You are in for the ride.

And i have to say the ending is not happy, but logical and it leaves you angry. Not because of what happens, but because you have that one conversation where you think that you will get closure about him and that is something that is not in the script. The movie ends and leaves you empty, and you will remember that moment and to me that is good and fitting. You can feel sad, or you can feel happy, but whichever one you feel, you will feel empty. And that impact on the viewer is what good drama is all about.

I enjoyed the suspense, but I felt the movie to be rather clinical and Hollywood in style. It could have been set anywhere. There is nothing in the movie that gives me that 'made in Spain' sort of movie appeal, such as Almodovar movies do.