Julia's Eyes

The Spanish horror cinema is one of the big surprises of recent years. The orphanage, and less-in measure-REC REC 2 showed signs of the vitality of a genre that scares when it comes forward with a Spanish accent.

Julia's Eyes is a psychological thriller where a woman who is going blind in the middle of her job has the sensation that she is being strangled after that she shortly receives news that her sister who is already blind due to both having a genetic illness they both share, committed suicide (the myth that twins,can feel when something happens to his/her sibling at the same time)which is never brought again in the film,Julia who knew her sister pretty well knows that it wasn't a suicide but murder instead.

This is an excellent hook for a thriller that, relatively speaking, could be related more with old mysteries of Alfred Hitchcock or the early films of Dario Argento.In fact it would not be unusual for Alone in the Dark (1967), Terrence Young film with Audrey Hepburn would have represented some influence in this story, as they have some points in common.

The tension in the film is produced by great acting specially from Belen Rueda, the strong band and effectiveness of the sound effects,angle shots framing( there's a brilliant technique in the middle of the film that gives an idea on how a blind person interacts with someone that they can not see), photography, and the locations. it has some minor flaws in the plot but above all its a terrific film to enjoy

I really can not understand how some people have written about this film: boring, long without suspension, and many more of these baseless comments. A lot of energy has been put into this film. The directing and acting were really great. The music was also very good. I remembered Hitchcock's psychological film. Both of these characters killed people due to mental problems. I just didn't like the overly romantic ending. It is very easy to write a review on a movie. We can easily say that it is a bad movie and say bad things about it. But making a movie is very hard work and it is different from writing with a mobile phone which is a bad or boring movie. We have to be a little fair.

I watched this movie on the plane the other day, trying to find something to keep me awake (as sleep on an airplane never leaves you rested, but merely with a stiff body).

What I saw was, however - to my positive surprise - much more than just something to pass time, as I actually enjoyed it a lot.

I find the plot quite fascinating and very original, and it has, with its unpredictability, more than just a few surprises in store. Granted, there are a few inconsistencies with the storyline, but I didn't see them as a big problem, as the movie, as a whole, works.

All in all, a really good horror thriller, which keeps you guessing till the very end.

A respectable blend of drama and horror, using strengths of both but also succumbing occasionally to the weaknesses.

Suspense is present from the very beginning, building to an exciting and unexpected climax, unfortunately falling a bit flat afterward. In fact, the last 30 seconds of the film somewhat blemish the drama of the story as a whole, mostly because the ending touches on a relationship that was hardly explored and not at all significant through the rest of the film, partly because of the focus on the very thing that makes this movie good: the constant twists and turns in the story. This also leads to some ideas that are passable but don't make nearly as much sense as they're supposed to; particularly the whole "people who aren't seen"/"There was no man with her (Sara)"/"Don't look at me!" motif. I still don't get it, but it has little impact on the story anyway.

I believe the entirety of the story could have used some fine tuning, and run time could have been trimmed by 10 to 15 minutes... But overall it's engaging, well acted, and sets an excellent and fitting mood visually. Thrillers that can't project the protagonist's experience to the viewer fail horribly... this movie does an outstanding job providing a sense of confinement that fits the title character's world, and this is where its greatest strength lies.

Although character relationships are a bit thin and suspense doesn't hit many high notes, this is a fairly exciting thrill ride and a good effort all around. One last thing, I would recommend watching it without distraction... the mood is more visual and in the flow of the story than it is intellectual or suspenseful, and it's easy to lose interest if you step away for a few minutes.

Julia, (Belen Rueda) like her twin sister Sara suffers from a degenerative nerve disease which is slowly but surely turning her blind, with her twin having succumbed to total blindness earlier. When her sister dies, apparently of a suicide, Julia feels there's something not quite right. Her sister wasn't depressed, and in fact had been looking forward to a potentially curable operation. Plus, there's rumours of Sara having had a mysterious boyfriend. But why didn't he go the funeral? Doubted by her Psychologist husband Isaacs (Lluis Homar) Julia resolves to investigate. But her disease is getting worse, and she keeps feeling that somebody is watching her every move. Is she cracking up? Or is something more sinister at play here?

Julia's Eyes starts off very promising indeed, with a gripping first hour, as director Guillem Morales ratchets up the tension with some clever visual tricks and an increasingly dark and creepy tone, as well as some entertaining red herrings.

However, by the third act, it unfortunately gets kinda... silly. It also unfortunately has a rather ludicrous revelation, as well as some clichéd bad decision making on the part of the protagonist. It also could have been a leaner affair, being rather needlessly overlong.

As well as this, the film doesn't really cover all the elements of its rather layered plot as well as it could have, with one or two loose ends that will very probably have the viewer raising a suspicious eyebrow.

That having said, it has some decent performances, is pretty absorbing and again, has a nigh on excellent first half.

Any horror or chiller fan should find much to like here, but ultimately it comes across as rather dissatisfying, considering its ambition.

7/10- A solid enough film, that's worth checking out overall, but potentially could have been excellent.