The Hidden Face

A very good movie with minimal star cast and outstanding plot line.

An orchestra conductor living a wealthy life with his beautiful girlfriend and abruptly her Girl Friend vanishes leaving him inexplicably, caused by his infidelity.

The plot revolves around the hunt for his girlfriend.

A very good thriller, described by the fantastic storytelling telling about the present and the past, acting is very good and plot twists are enthralling.

Recommended to the suspense and mystery lovers.

7.5/10

LA CARA OCULTA starts out mediocre, with dialogue that seems cranked out by a ten year old without much imagination -- "Hi, how are you? Good and you? Good, thank you. Would you like something to drink? Yes..." And so on. TV soaps have better dialogue.

Quim Gutierrez' performance is at best lacking. He has two facial expressions that actually look very similar. And Martina Garcia reminds me of Jessica Alba in terms of her looks and her bare minimum acting skills.

I thought the movie might be a bust until, half way through the film, Clara Lagos shows up and the movie becomes a heart-pounding thriller with top notch acting and a series of fascinating and very creepy twists.

My advice: stay through the first so-so hour and you won't be able to turn it off.

And yes, Quim Gutierrez should have rehearsed the role of an orchestra conductor better and...

DO NOT WATCH THE TRAILER!

A Spanish orchestra conductor named Adrián (Quim Gutiérrez) receives a video message from his sweetheart Belén (Clara Lago), in which she breaks up with him , after that , she is suddenly disappeared . Then the orchestra conductor has to deal with the mysterious disappearance of his girlfriend and he is main suspect . Her sudden disappearance leaves Adrián dejected , confused but keen to move on, as he swiftly becomes romantically involved with barmaid Fabiana (Martina García). The pair fall madly in love as Fabiana moves in with her new lover. However her opening few days at her new residence are tainted by a paranoia that she is being haunted , following a string of mystifying incidents taking place in the bathroom and bedroom . Fabiana, begins to spend time in the house alone she starts hearing noises and experiencing odd events. Could Belén be reaching out from beyond the grave for vengeance? Or is there something even more sinister at play ? It does have mysterious happenings in a big , spooky house along with pain, suffering of one or two scorned women.

This is an intriguing and suspenseful Colombian/Spanish co-production full of thrills , chills and twists and turns . ¨La Cara Oculta¨or ¨The Hidden Face¨ is a compelling tale of intersecting narratives, in a feature that could quite easily be released as two separate film . Despite being somewhat of a cinematic cliché, rarely has a feature been so aptly deserving of its description as a film of two halves . Acceptable performance by protagonist trio as Quim Gutierrez as wealthy , voguish orchestra conductor engaged to a Spanish girlfriend well acted by Clara Lago , whose sudden disappearance leaves Adrián stressed , saddened , leaving him the number one suspect in the eyes of the police , but he takes up with another woman shortly thereafter, , as he spontaneously becomes passionately involved with barmaid Fabiana finely played by the gorgeous Colombian actress Martina García . Furthermore , a special appearance of veteran and experienced actress Alexandra Stewart as a landlady . Thrilling and mysterious musical score by Federico Jusid . Glamorous and luxurious cinematography by Josep M. Civit . The motion picture was compellingly directed by Andrez Baiz in his second film , the first was ¨Satanas¨in which also worked Martina Garcia . Rating : Notable , above average , worthwhile watching .

A lot of people are comparing this little gem to Hitchcock, but it reminds me of the Brian DePalma films of the 80s that were homages to Hitchcock. He has returned to that genre a couple times during the last twenty years, but with no success at all. This just really felt like the erotically charged DePalma films like "Dressed to Kill". Like the other reviewers, I agree the film started off slowly and it is by no means a classic, but really nice modern film noir and with some wonderful Colombian beauties. Strong cast and stylish direction raise this above the norm. I have been watching a lot of Spanish language thrillers of late. This would be a good double feature with "The Body". But I enjoyed this slightly more. I would like to see Mr. Baiz's other two full length features. Highly recommended.

This Colombian film - quite rare in European cinemas - has a good suspense source, enabling to create a thrilling story about love and its related topics (jealousy, faithfulness, yearning, etc.), visible is rather extreme circumstances. Regretfully, the first half or so is quite plain and protracted, and contains questionable plot elements, e.g. why the police looked on the disappearance matter so seriously. Inclusion of Nazi topic into a Latin American society is not fresh either. True, there were some interesting twists, but the very end could have been more concrete or revenge-related, the current one created a kind of vacuity, no quivering.

Characters seems realistic, but apart from Clara Lago as Belén, there were no catchy performances, preferable particularly in case of events happening in limited space. But all in all, La cara oculta is a far-above-average thriller, with its duration of less than 1,5 hours.