Hierro

A very underrated movie. This movie is good, the acting is terrific as well as the photography. The script is a descent one with a twist that works perfectly well, I don't see the so called evident predictability at all. And most of the complaints here are based also in that same old mantra: it's a slow paced movie. It seems that the Hollywood followers need one more century to realize the difference between art and fast food, not to mention the "lack of gore" and all the horror paraphernalia that they want to see all the time. Very good movie, intriguing, touching, visually beautiful. I hope the director doesn't pay too much attention to the unfair reviews here this time and move forward with contentment. Very well done.

The disappearance of a child is a subject which was often filmed ;in the last decade ,"flightplan" and " changeling" come to mind .And ,as Michelangelo Antonioni showed in "L'Avventura" ,an island is the ideal place to locate such a story,although his was a desert one.People living on an island are often (if you go by what the screenwriters write,of course,so islanders ,please ,don't feel offended! ) places where the inhabitants are bizarre,hostile and do not like strangers .

"Hierro" is not like the two other American movies :it is a story of paranoia ,in which reality and nightmare collide.When the heroine is in the mortuary ,the audience sides with her and anyway who could accept such a thing:the death of your only child ?Even the police seem suspect ,even the young one who wants to lend a helping hand.This is a slow-moving story,a wandering across splendid but gloomy landscapes, a wandering in the recesses of her mind too for this is primarily a psychological drama . A bit confused, but a laudable attempt.

There are quite a few good movies from Spain, covering the horror thriller. This one starts really good and has awesome cinematography and really good actors. Still in the end, it doesn't completely deliver on the premise.

One of the main problems being, that it too foreseeable, but still tries to build upon a twist, that you can see coming a long way, before it actually gets revealed in the movie. The hints are there of course and it is pretty nicely done. Maybe if this is your very first thriller, you might be a bit more excited. But all in all, you can watch this, just be patient with the movie and enjoy it's setting and the "view".

Fantastic score, beautiful cinematography and good acting by Elena Anaya - all ruined by a bad script.

The score carries some similarities to "The Machinist" (the composer here was the orchestrator on the latter), including what sounded to me like a Theramin - and was simply too good for this film. At one point it sounds very similar to Mozart's Requiem. Together with the cinematography, it reminded me of the atmosphere of "The Machinist".

The only thing I didn't like about the cinematography is the use of digital camera, which was very obvious in numerous points throughout the movie.

"Hierro" is definitely worth a watch. It is by no means perfect -it is slow-paced, too slow-paced at times; it has random scenes and seemingly random characters that could have been further exploited; the nightmarish, surreal atmosphere that is hinted at in the first scenes never quite comes to fruition-, but it is a captivating experience for a viewer. Ultimately, what makes this movie a little sea pearl is the depth and the realism of the emotions that it conveys, mostly thanks to a stellar and very inspired Elena Anaya, who deserves every praise as the actress that carries the weight of this drama on her shoulders, and pulls it off masterfully.

In "Hierro", Elena Anaya stars as María, a young mother to 5-year-old Diego. On a ferry journey to the small Canary island of Hierro, Diego vanishes and no trace of him can be found. The first part of the movie is probably the best -we see the young mother whose life is centered around her only son, and then we witness her despair at her loss, and her fruitless attempts at recovering some kind of normalcy. These sequences in particular, with María bordering madness, are especially well-done. One day, María gets a call from the police in Hierro, asking her to return in order to check the identity of a body that could be that of Diego's. Back in Hierro, María will continue her quest for the lost son, in the middle of a desolate -but extremely beautiful- natural setting, and colorful but hostile locals...

While the story doesn't flow as naturally as desired, I never found it hard to follow, nor boring -I was mesmerized by the powerful emotional journey of this mother and for the mysteries that she finds along her way. The ending is very fitting and well-done. The final answer to the young mother's plight and whether it can be predicted or not doesn't matter as much as how she gets there and all the difficulties that she has to surmount, which made this a perdurable story in my mind.

My rating is 8/10.