El silencio de la ciudad blanca

Not such a mystery Not plot twists Not a masterpiece Just a easy going movie to spend some time

35 minutes into the film the audience is told who the serial killer is. And I mean us, the viewers, not through the main character or the investigation, only us, we're told for no reason, no purpose, and no benefit. Unbelievable.

After that, the film doesn't get any better. The characters are poorly developed, a lot of things are left open and/or unexplained and it is obvious the whole time that you're viewing a (bad) book adaptation.

Wasted running & chasing leading to pointless results. Producing not 1 clue or evidence until the last 30 minutes doesn't make this a thriller!

This Spanish thriller is centred on the hunt for a serial killer; each time he strikes he kills two people; one male one female. Each pair of victims is from a wealthy family and five years older than the previous pair. His crimes mirror those that happened twenty years previously; the man accused of those crimes is in prison but is due to be released soon. Policeman Unai López de Ayala, a skilled profiler, is put in charge of the case; his first since returning to work after the death of his wife. He works alongside younger female officer Estíbaliz Ruiz de Gauna.

I enjoyed this film although in the already crowded serial killer genre it doesn't feel enormously original. There are some nice ideas such as there being pairs of victims each time and a disturbing yet novel method of murder. We are told the identity of the killer, and their connection to somebody close to our protagonist fairly early on so there isn't really a mystery about who is doing it; just a question of why, and how they will ultimately be stopped. I liked our two investigators; Javier Rey and Aura Garrido impress in these roles. The rest of the cast are pretty solid too. Everything looks good with impressive locations; both indoors and outside. Overall a decent enough addition to the genre; not a must see but still worth a watch... just don't expect it to be up there with 'The Silence of the Lambs'.

These comments are based on watching the film in Spanish with English subtitles.

I've noticed that the terrible reviews seem to come from people watching the dubbed version of films on Netflix. The lazy or stupid who cannot read subtitles have no clue as to the true storytelling and acting presented to them.

This is no Silence Of The Lambs, but well worth of watching if one can actually read subtitles while viewing.