viaradar

After reading some reviews, and with a rating of 7.6 in IMDb, we decided to watch this film a group of friends on a Saturday afternoon. After the first 20', two of them went off to have a drink.

Then, 45' into the movie, another two left, only me stayed until the end. I wish I had joined the first two!

Shot entirely on a shoulder-camera, no music score, long long shots, almost no dialog, most of the scenes had no interest at all, low quality of picture and colour, why on Earth was I enduring this Belgian minimal story?

Because we were misled by the reviews and the rating.

The acting of the two main characters is very natural, but with almost no expressions on their faces, as most of the time we are watching their necks and shoulders from behind.

Don't hope the movie gets interesting at the end, it doesn't!

Choose another flick or do anything else, but don't waste your time watching this crap.

I had decided to watch EL MAR as a tribute to its director, Agustí Villaronga, who died on the 22nd/January/2023. I was expecting a kind of romantic gay movie, but what I saw was a terrible story of young men tortured by facts that happened when they were kids, devoured by their inner demons and very hurt by their past experiences. I don't want to spoil what's a very sophistecate story, but I warn you that it is not an easy movie to watch.

Too much blood and male nudity. Most of the dialogs are not natural coming from young minds. The acting is very good and the casting perfect, the actors are very handsome, even the locations are very well chosen, but it's not recommended for the weak at heart.

It reflects realisticly the interaction of two persons completly unknown to each other that only have in common (in the beggining) the desire to have sex.

Some of the secuences are too long and it lacks some rithm in the action. The actors are well chosen and they look very natural all along.

Too much drugs involved in the action (in MHO). The sex scenes are well shot and they don't need to be very explicit.

It is a great achivement that the budget was less than $120,000 and that the movie got more than $1,800,000 in sales around the world.

Will I be watching this movie again? Probably not.

Will I reccommend this movie to some gay friends? Probably yes.