Die Spur der Knochen

Lost and found , in all its forms, from birth to death, a secluded little spanish dramathriller, about a man that works in the citys department of lost and found items, a real nerdy job searching for the lost items owners, an obsesiveness occurs when a skelleton of a baby is found in a red suitcase drawn out of the river.

A well made, highly spano-european filmstyle, with its archtypical spanish male figurine, a well written crimestory of highly realistic issues, a human trafficking tale that happens everywhere in the world cloaked under the name of ''adoption''

but its also a desperate human lovestory, that takes risky turns from the start. The production design, the location layout , the multitude of weird lost gadgets, the musical score and some exclusively made filmatographic tricks makes this , along with a decently acting cast, a hidden gem of spanish language film.

There is something magic about the light and a feeling of a misty cold in the dark that i cannot explain, therefore have a look yourself, a recommend from the grumpy old man.

"The Trail of Bones" is very reminiscent of the style of well-known Spanish thriller series and Álvaro Morte is also a familiar face since "House of Money". This is a successful mixture of mystery, thriller, some action and a thriller romance. The setting is excellently chosen, the main character Mario played by Álvaro Morte is an oddball loner who works in a municipal lost and found office. His passion is to breathe a second life into old lost items and, ideally, return them to their former owners.

The location alone, a former train station that serves as Mario's home and workplace, is impressive. As are the many selected props. After a gruesome discovery in a suitcase, he is gripped and determined to find out what it is all about. Especially when it quickly becomes clear that the police are no longer interested, as no concrete evidence of a crime has been found, Mario takes the search into his own hands. His character is very clever but also very driven by his emotions, perhaps a little stereotypical, a Spanish daredevil who impulsively doesn't give a damn at times, almost naively getting himself into dangerous situations. Even if not everyone can share this approach, it still remains credible. All the actors do a good job, but the beautiful María Eugenia Suárez as "Sara" carries the movie together with Álvaro Morte.

It is not only a well-written crime story with a realistic theme, but also a desperate human love story that takes risky turns from the very beginning. "The Trail of Bones" is particularly characterized by its dense atmosphere. What begins gloomy, dark, sometimes disgusting and scary, turns into sun-drenched images with a touch of "hope and a perfect world". The score supports the respective moments. Especially when it alternates between quiet passages and subtle action. This keeps the story varied and exciting.

Unfortunately, "The Trail of Bones" is not quite perfect. On the one hand, the very good pace of the story is somewhat at the expense of the detailed character sketches. We learn relatively little about Mario and almost nothing about Sara's past. The same goes for the supporting characters. However, this is justifiable, as in a length of 1 hour 47 minutes, compromises have to be made and the overall story works on its own. A somewhat unfortunate choice is the lack of a time window - such as "eight months later" for time jumps. This would have been important for a logical and coherent presentation. If you can figure it out for yourself and don't attach too much importance to it, you can still enjoy the movie.

I would normally give it 7.5/10. Due to the few partly unfounded bad reviews, I have decided to give it 10/10. Because I watched the movie twice, due to the logic holes that some people criticized. But I have to say, if you pay close attention, it's coherent and apart from the missing time period as described above, there are no holes in the logic.

--------------- Conclusion:

Worth seeing - A little hidden gem in the Spanish thriller genre. A gripping, entertaining story with an emotional ending.

It started very interesting! Casa de Papel Main Actor, beautiful main actress. Wow. Mysterious Suitcase is found. Main story on paper not bad, but the script is just awful. So many things that are simply stupid. No Logic at all. The actors give their best, but the plot is simply not believable at toooo many points during the story. Also its more a drama than a crime story. No deep connections, no conversations, no logic. No thrill. Its normal to see situations in movies where peope do not act like real humans, just for the sake of the story, but here it happens too often. Every 5 minutes bad decisions are made. As the viewer we dont even know why, what are the actors motivations? Why should we care? It's a brutal mess. Especially the last 15minutes are crazy stupid and bad ending.. Save yourself and watch something else!

No pun intended - and I actually have not seen the tv show the main actor here is famously in (Casa de Papal or something like that) - I do have it on my watchlist and I did meet him briefly at a convention. Cool and fun Dude as you may imagine.

His character here is not so cool - as in quite driven by his emotions. Understandable to a degree - again since I have not seen the show, I have no idea if this is a stretch when it comes to his acting chops or more of the same. I can only say that he is really doing everything he can to elevate the movie - I would argue he is not able to, especially because this is by the numbers (which would be something a professor would love I reckon) ... is that enough thrill(er) for you?

This is a good try, given the usual low quality of Spanish productions. But, it is still a really bad movie. A thriller with elements of classic noir, the story is plagued by the bad acting of main cast, and a dense and false drama, presumptuous and full of clichés. The worst is the complete lack of consistency, absurdities and unbelievable situations and behaviors of the main parts, which constantly break the suspension of disbelief. As usual in Spanish movies, the depiction of police work is ludicrous and unrealistic.

The best part, the Chinese guys in the very first minutes. The other actors are, simply, not good, plain and without life, lacking chemistry among them, character development, or ability to create empathy with the viewer. Maybe the problem is that they tried to present people, situations and dialogues that are culturally so far from Spanish culture. Perhaps, on the script in paper, it works; but, when filmed, just doesn't work. I guess that a Hollywood remake, solving the holes and inconsistencies, would work as a routinary, but nice thriller.

Overall, a bad, boring, slow, and stupid movie. To avoid.