Utopia has an intriguing premise that it unfortunately fails to live up to. The film revolves around Adrián (Leonardo Sbaraglia), a young clairvoyant who is a member of a mysterious group called Utipia. The aims of the group are to protect people who will make the world a better place, from threats on their life foreseen by Adrián. But the young man leaves the group after a failed attempt to stop one of the members from a killing spree, resulting in the death of a police inspector's wife and daughter.
Years later, he is persuaded by his foster father Samuel (Héctor Alterio) to participate in one last mission for the group: save the life of Ángela (Najwa Nimri), who has become embroiled with a cult. But opposing him is Hervé (Tcheky Karyo), the cop who was blinded in the explosion that killed his family. He is hired by Ángela's mother to "deprogram" her daughter.
So far, so good. Unfortunately, the director and the scriptwriters fail to generate much tension. Director Maria Ripoll seems more interested in the relationship between Ángela and Adrián rather than developing the thriller aspects of the movie. As a result there is little sense of urgency to the film, and thus audience interest ebbs.
Further hampering the film is the fact that the characters never really come to life. Nimri, so sexy in El Metodo, seems unable to give any dimension to her underwritten character. Neither does she develop any chemistry with Sbaraglia, which also compromises the love story. The best performance is left to the veteran Karyo, who seems to have the best-written role with the most well defined motivations.
The film also fails to develop its concept. Utopia could have been an examination of the two opposing points of view: predestination vs. free will. But the filmmakers are uninterested. In fact, they ultimately settle on the most pat message possible to end the film, namely that despite clairvoyant visions, the future can still be changed, which honestly is kind of trite. There's also an intriguing scene in which the cultists murder a family in as part of a rite to gain clairvoyance, but the film unfortunately never picks up on this.
Still, the filmmaker does succeed in creating some intriguing visuals to punch up the film. One particular highlight is the last scene of the film, where Adrián, who now fully accepts his gift, is surrounded by his visions. Another is the opening of the film, reminiscent of the film Seven, which intercuts the activities of the serial killer with scenes of Adrián experiencing a nose-bleed as he tries to track down the killer. But these scenes, while visually striking, fail to contribute anything substantial to the film.
Sad to say, the best one can say about Utopia is that it is disappointing and fails to live up to its potential. When this film was screened at Pelikula, the recently concluded Spanish film festival, Maria Ripoll was in attendance, and she admitted in a short forum afterward that she is really more into comedies than thrillers, and that she doesn't even like violence. In this light, perhaps she should stick to comedies like the exemplary Tu Vida en 65.
