Verano en rojo

Marta Nieto (Mother) and José Coronado (There will be no peace for the wicked) star in this supposed thriller poorly directed by Belén Macías in which its protagonists, commissioner María Ruiz and veteran journalist Luna, must investigate two murders, apparently unconnected, that they will be taken to the doors of an important religious order. Madrid, summer 2010. Commissioner María Ruiz investigates the sinister crime of a young man. With no visible identity and no clues or apparent motive, María will begin an investigation that will become increasingly complicated. Throughout it, María Ruiz together with her police partner Carlos (Luis Callejo) discover some clues until reaching a surprising ending.

. A disconcerting and tiresome intrigue that tries to poorly unite the police and journalistic investigation into some powerful groups involved in terrible crimes. Based on the first book of the literary saga by the writer and journalist Berna González. It is a police-type intrigue but it fails at all levels, here there is no action, no suspense, nor the proper tension that thrillers usually provide. The only interesting thing is the demonstration of the aging José Coronado, playing a veteran journalist stating that journalism is devoured by a digital world that seeks immediacy instead of the quality and veracity that traditional newspapers provide. The film is poorly shot, without proper intrigue, without thriller, without any interest in the story. It is only inclined to make a generic denunciation of practically the entire ecclesiastical establishment, from bishops, priests to simple religious teachers, accusing the Catholic Church of being a pedophile, an abuser and the author of horrible crimes. And it denounced an alleged massive scandal of child abuse and encouraged its cover-up since its publicity would shake the entire Catholic Church to its core. Although no one objects that there have been abuses, it is not possible to massify them, but to individualize them, since the same thing also occurs in other non-religious places of education. The undersigned spent many years in a religious school, and throughout it I neither suffered, nor saw, nor dealt with classmates who had been participants or victims of said acts. The scriptwriters of 'Summer in Red' wanted to do a kind of police and journalistic investigation of the pedagogical work of the Church, in the style of Tom McCarthy's "Spotlight" but mixing it with pedophilia and gruesome murders, reaching the extreme of ridiculousness and the nonsense, although "Spotlight" was well documented and contained an interesting script with enough intrigue, here it falls into the most resounding failure and complete boredom. Of course, the film already in its beginnings proudly declares that it has been subsidized by the Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts (ICAA), ICO Official Credit Institute, Government of Navarra, Government of Spain (taking into account that an average film Spanish is about 4 or 5 million, a film like this with well-known actors must have pocketed 6 million euros, that's what our taxes go to), practically the private producers who appear in the credits will not have invested a single euro, although they will not have lost anything because such an insignificant, slow and depressing film has not even been released in theaters and surreptitiously passing through digital platforms. What does not happen with the Oscar-winning "Spotlight" financed by Sony Pictures, Open Road, Paramount Pictures and with famous actors such as Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdam, Liev Schreiber; Of course the Obama government, Joe Biden and much less Trump would finance this film or similar ones.

The film was directed in a boring and very slow way by Belén Macias (Marsella, Family Games), who is a filmer who works both for cinema and more frequently for television (Victor Ros, The Princess of Eboli, The Lady, Hospital Central, Fugitiva ). Rating: 2.5/10. Below average, really a rubbish film.

No pun intended - you could also ask what he did ... or didn't do, but that is something that is being explored in the movie. Also who the he is - we have a main (female) character. And she has quite the work cut out for her. If you suspend your disbelief and enjoy mystery ... well this will be something that will make your day (not Clint Eastwood style mind you).

Spanish movies or film makers are known for their ability to make at least decent thrillers - I would argue this is the case here too. Of course I have seen better ones and I understand if some people take issue with the pacing and the revelations the movie is offering (again no pun intended) ... watch the trailer if you are not sure is what I would say - you are welcome.