Insensibles

Wow wow wow! I just loved this from the start to the finish. Brilliant!

The trailer was excellent and the first 20 or so minutes .

Yet the storytelling is far from being perfect - no emotional connection can be established with any of the personages and the only good acting performances were the ones of the children.

Although the cinematography was not bad the film would potentially bore its viewers .

The film is extremely slow paced as well and since the character development is pretty much not existent one could hardly appreciate the story.

The cover art is very misleading as well - as one may come to the conclusion that the film would offer a coming-of-age narrative .

Since there was no relevant review about this movie I decided to watch it and do it myself.

"Painless", this is a 2012 film directed by Juan Carlos Medina, this is the type of movie that tells two different stories in two different times and ultimately everything is related (such as Vantage Point).

The first part tells the story of children who cannot feel any pain, especially one called "Benigno", who is a child that stands out from others for having "something very special" and focuses on the years of the 1,930's at the height of the Spanish Civil war, though the trailer may give the impression that this is a movie where there are rituals, Satan and witchcraft (at least that was my impression), after seeing the movie you realizes that the title has a deeper meaning.

And the other part it tells the story of "David" a man suffering from leukemia and needs a transplant of... "something" that only his parents can give him, and when he does he start to revealing the dark past of his family, this part focuses more or less in the year ... 2012?

I gotta admit that there were parts where I was "lost" because this movie is ... well not completely but there are parts where they speak 3 languages​​: Spanish, German and I think Catalan. And although I have no problem with it, because as any fan of the movies I see movies in their original language (even if I do not understand a freaking thing), you can always activate subtitles. Overall the film is filmed very well there is suspense, and there are moments of "what's gonna happen?". I liked to film, though I "shut down" almost at the end of the movie, but I gained strength at the end when "Berkano" appeared, if you want to know what's that you gotta see the movie. I am surprised that it doesn't appeared in Wikipedia or Rotten Tomatoes. This movie reminded me of Guillermo del Toro's "The Devil's Backbone".

Can this film decide what it wants to be? Is it a n unsubtle metaphor for Spanish denial of the atrocities committed during the civil war or is it a dubiously plotted horror? Whichever it is facial gymnastics abound in what amounts to a fantasy (we are asked to suspend so much disbelief) as disposable women swiftly march through the narrative.

I loved this mystery.. Dark and heartfelt terror fill the story..

Old fashioned ghost story without a ghost..

I'm a movie freak and this foreign flick fulfilled everything I enjoy.. The subtitles are easy and the story doesn't really need words anyway..

Simple and well acted but with a very squeamish subject; children and (Spanish War)torture..

The story splits between two worlds and I loved being led down the dark corridors of my imagination trying to suss out the riddle that's laid out from the beginning.. I'm sure to see this again just to watch the beauty hidden between the atrocities of war playing out.. If all you've known is suffering, beauty becomes a precious balance to cruelty.

If you can't stomach fingernails being pulled off, blood, the ripping of flesh, AND torture, it's the wrong movie for you.. And if you're looking for a movie like Saw and believe this is one of those movies, wrong again.. It's not for you.. It has a very Guiermo Del Toro feel to it but it has it's own unique attitude, I mean if you have sympathy for evil, this one will bring it out.. And like Del Toro's scripts, the guy you're afraid of through the whole thing will have you crying for him by the end..