Tesis sobre un homicidio

Thesis on a Homicide is a taut thriller about a cat-and-mouse game between a former lawyer and a young man he believes is a murderer. The question throughout the film remains whether he is right in his assumptions or if he's jumping to conclusions. I love that element of mystery that is woven throughout the film. It moved in ways that I kind of expected, but it still felt exciting. For instance, you could see certain moments where it appeared the blame would shift from one character to another, but I was looking at it with a bit of dread anticipating that horrible possibility. It's easy to love a protagonist played by Ricardo Darin, even when he's a bit stoic and quiet like we see in this film. You want to see him come out on top even when he makes some ill-advised decisions. But he's just a little abnormal, so you still question whether you should be trusting him.

The most frustrating and disheartening part of Thesis on a Homicide is the lack of a proper conclusion. You can see the kind of dramatic cliffhanger they want to leave you on, so there's this level of suspense even in the final moments. However, it didn't work well for me. There's something about the way they deliver the last scenes that made me annoyed rather than satisfied. It's like the movie just stops rather than ends. Otherwise, I was fully on board for the entire mystery. It was a great thriller that has a nice slow burn that keeps the tension ratcheting up throughout. You keep waiting for the big shocker or surprise reveal, but they maintained a level of suspense that kept me on the edge of my seat. Perhaps on rewatch the end will sit better with me, but for now I find Thesis on a Homicide to be good but not one of Darin's greatest films.

OMG! I was loving this UNTIL it ended. I'm not going to spoil this because it is full of suspense. This is well written, acted and filmed. I can not complain about anything other than the ending. You'll have to watch it to understand why. It is worth the watch.

Following up on the success of "The secret in their eyes" comes another Argentine psychological thriller starring Ricardo Darín, a professor of law who suspects one of his students of committing a heinous crime in the university where he teaches a postgraduate course on law. Strong performances all around, especially Calu Rivero as the victim's sister. Unfortunately there are some very serious flaws in the pace and cinematography, which at times gets so pretentious it comes across as amateurish. The first 60 minutes of this movie are excruciatingly slow and filled with close-up shots. Close-ups of hands, eyes, fingers, cigarettes, coffee mugs. The very few wide shots are from a very low angle. Whether the idea was to make it experimental or artsy, it failed, and it becomes annoying when you get to see the dirt in the skin pores of the protagonist.

The topics of justice, fairness, ethics and the law are brought up repeatedly but regrettably never get discussed deeper than coffee-table level. The plot is set up in a promising and original way, but it quickly gets bogged down in a succession of long, meaningless shots and the story loses grip. After a while the suspense atmosphere appears contrived and more or less imposed by the music and the cinematography rather than the story unfolding. This movie could have been great, but some of the key elements that make a good crime/psychological thriller are absent.

"Details. It's all in the details."

Fresh after the success of The Secret in Their Eyes, Ricardo Darin stars in another criminal suspense thriller that attempts to recreate that similar slow building atmosphere. Directed by Hernan Goldfrid, Thesis on a Homicide, begins with a lot of promise thanks in large part to Darin's charismatic performance as Roberto Bermudez, a criminal law specialist who is teaching a two month course to recent graduate lawyers. He has just published a well received book in the field as well and that is how we are introduced to his character. He is an intelligent and well respected man, but his work has affected his personal life as he lives on his own after a failed marriage. He takes a particular interest in one of his students who has come from Spain and whose parents he was a close friend of. His name is Gonzalo (Alberto Ammann) and he seems to fit a particular psychological profile that troubles Roberto. He feels like Gonzalo is one of those arrogant rich kids who wants to prove he can commit the perfect murder. When a murder takes place in the parking lot of the Faculty of Law, Roberto becomes obsessed to prove that Gonzalo is behind the crime. This obsession leads him to few hours of sleep and at the same time he ends up putting Laura's (Calu Rivero), the victim's sister, life at risk when he uses her as bait to reach Gonzalo. This obsession gradually makes Roberto lose his mind and it becomes an interesting psychological character study building on the suspense.

The film opens with a lot of promise and I was engaged with Darin's performance. He is one of those few actors who can turn a weak script into an interesting and compelling movie. This isn't an intelligent thriller, but it works thanks to his lead performance. Unfortunately the build-up doesn't fulfill its promise because the ending feels forced. The film tries to be an intelligent thriller focusing on the law system, but it never really delves deep into the subject matter and everything is slightly touched upon. The thriller never feels like it could stand out on its own because it seems to borrow heavily from other films in the genre and you can't help but feel like you've seen this same plot in numerous other movies. The film does a good job at establishing the atmosphere during the first half of the film, but once the behavior of Roberto becomes overly obsessive it is apparent that each decision he makes is forced to move the story along. I felt like some of the liberties the director took with the character were too manipulative and out of character. The final fifteen minutes of the film are very disappointing in that way and everything seems rushed, which doesn't work at all in a film that took so much time to build the atmosphere in the first place. Calu Rivero delivers an interesting performance although there isn't much for her to do here. This is Darin's film and he makes the screenplay work to the best of his ability, but the rest of the characters are all underdeveloped.

I couldn't help but feel that the cinematography was very pretentious at times. It looks good and has some interesting angles, but after a few minutes you realize there isn't much purpose to these shots other than to show off the director's talents. It becomes distracting at times and it really didn't add anything to the story. There are a couple of dream sequences that didn't work either, but I'm being a little to critical of this film because for the most part I was entertain and intrigued. The suspense works, but unfortunately the final payoff disappoints and you are left with that bittersweet taste in your mouth. When it comes to Argentinean cinema, Ricardo Darin is already involved in its most important films, but this isn't one I'd recommend. Skip this and watch The Secret in their Eyes or Nine Queens if you haven't had a chance to see Darin. He's a talented actor who has refused over the past decade to work in Hollywood, but if you've seen Argentinean films you probably have an idea of what a great actor he is.

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I can say, as an Argentinian, that this movie shows the great influence American cinema has all over the world. In this case it shows, together with "The Secret of his Eyes", the improvement in terms of camera uses and photography, always following the American prototype. Particularly I don't think this is a movie to be proud of, but it's not bad neither. It has a lack of emphasis in the plot and maybe needs to be more dynamic. I wouldn't take a side the fact that Argentinian movies are getting better and better leaving behind that decay they used to have. This movie, "9 Queens" and "The Secret of his Eyes" can prove my theory.