7th Floor - Jede Sekunde zählt

The 7th Floor is a drama all centered around the worst day in a man's life. It's a tough watch because the stress level is always cranked up, and Ricardo Darin makes his fear downright palpable. From the first moment he loses track of his kids you fear the worst and it feels like everyone is against our protagonist. There's seemingly no one he can fully trust and most of the film is him jumping from one conclusion to the next trying to deduce who is behind this horrible thing. While it did get a bit repetitive and formulaic when he kept pointing the finger at someone else, I was still completely invested in the story. I also wanted to see if things would turn out OK, and if they would ever reveal the identity of the kidnappers (if they were really kidnapped at all.)

The ending of The 7th Floor is handled well, and they do enough to keep you in the dark. What bothered me about the conclusion was how they conveniently ignored or forgot about the long-term consequences of all the things our protagonist does throughout the film. He should be worried about being broke, without a job, and potentially at risk of being arrested. It's all swept under the rug and we're meant to just accept that those details are unimportant. The movie is still effective at thrusting you into the protagonist's shoes, as it made me feel stressed, and always on edge (suspecting every other person of being involved.) I can't say I totally loved it all, but The 7th Floor is still a good film and it's hard to go wrong when you have the great Ricardo Darin in the lead role.

To start with, Darín is one of the best Argentinian actors nowadays, and regardless (it is true) most of the times he plays the dodgy Argentinian kind of person, he always delivers an honest and intense performance to get you into the story. I always enjoy him and watch his movies. Santoros part is very good too, makes you think about him, and how's he involved in a very believable way. The story has enough mystery to keep me wondering what was happening to a certain point. Reactions from the characters in general were believable too and the setting was good and natural. But all this until the last third. there's a break point were everything starts to fail, events have no consequences and looses a lot of realism. There's a lot of plot holes and loose ends that are important but left unresolved. I wasn't really convinced by Ruedas performance (maybe her script wasn't good...), neither the kids acting was any good.. To finish with, the resolution was a bit simple and anti-climax. I was expecting something more interesting and in the level of the beginning of the movie, a shame that the ending didn't make justice to the first half. Some good acting, fair story and photography. Writing could be better. Average movie, not the best nor from the best of Argentinian cinema. An almost 6.

In Fabien Bielinsky's great film, 'Nine Queens', Roberto Darin brilliantly plays a charming con- man. We never know until the end which side of the con he is on; but somehow, one can't help rooting for him, even though he doesn't deserve it. In 'Septimo', Darin again plays a man potentially caught up in a trick. But the problem with this brief film is that is provides little evidence to judge the man's character: it's clear he's let people down in the past, he seems to be reasonably straight now, but the audience has little choice but to root for him as a conventional hero; I found I didn't really care either way. Darin remains one of my favourite actors; but the material here is too thin to make the best use of his talents.

The idea was pretty good, the trailer was amazing, everyone in Argentina except a lot about this movie, the actors were good, the part made by Ricardo Darin was very well done, like always, but there are plenty of problems, Belén Rueda wasn't the best choice for Delia, the same happens with Jorge D'Elía and the kids, there were plenty of missing things in their play, the movie was too short, the climax and the resolution of the films happens in about 25 minutes, the amount of suspects is very small, there are not plenty of different endings that the viewer can imagine. One good thing about the movie was the photography about Buenos Aires, i believe that that worth seeing the movie. Isn't the best Argentinian film of the year, neither the worst, it's an OK thriller, about the worst thing that could ever happens to a dad with a very "deus ex machina".

We thought it was a pretty good movie. I would watch it again better than whatever superhero movie they are constantly putting out now. At least this is an original idea with true plot twists and suspense, great actors overall and satisfying ending... great entertainment!