The Body

El Cuerpo (2012)

A twisty, clever, Spanish production that is edgy and sharp in its filming and conception. There is a corpse, and then there isn't—so who is doing what to whom in a kind of purposely convoluted whodunnit (and who didn't)? It works on a surface level and will suck you in and drag you along. For me, time after time, I was wishing it wasn't just a twist of some plot-writer's handbook at work.

The best parts of the film are really good—a solid cast, murky scenes (many of them in a morgue), hints of what happened that lead you astray, and even the "unreliable narrator" trick, which means you trust the lead character until you gradually realize you shouldn't have.

The constant shifting in the plot will thrill a lot of viewers. It's endlessly putting you on edge. But this ended up also undermining how to watch the film. It seemed that you were pushed outside of it and had to wait for the next turn of perspective. When that happens, it makes sense, basically, but it undermines what happened before. If the film was told truly from one person's perspective, the way (for example) James Stewart drives the narrative in the twisty "Vertigo," you'd excuse all the misunderstandings. But in this one the narration is omniscient, and playing games.

The other key thing that brought it down was a choice by the director to tell us everything instead of have it happen and let the audience experience it. You'll pick this up in the beginning when the main older doctor is led through the crime scene, and one clue after another is announced by some person coming in the room or wandering by. So we get the information, but in a form that is doesn't involve you as viscerally.

You'll see. It's all effective and contrived at the same time.

This Spanish Mystery/thriller/Noir film from Oriol Paulo and starring Belen Rueda(Julia's eyes, the Orphanage) had me on the edge of my seat until the very end. What's starts out as a mystery concerning the disappearance of a corpse from the morgue soon turns into a game of cat and mouse as nothing is what it seems and not even the dead can be trusted. Pure dread oozes through the entire film and by the end you are left with the hairs on the back of your neck standing on end and your blood running COLD.

THE BODY (EL CUERPO) is one of those thrillers that grips you at the beginning and never lets go till the very end. The plot is straightforward: Álex Ulloa (Hugo Silva) has suffered a sudden bereavement, as his wife Mayka (Belén Rueda) has died of a heart attack. The corpse has been taken to the morgue without a postmortem, but has mysteriously disappeared. The morgue security- guard Torres (Miquel Gelabert) has been scared out of his wits - so much so that he runs out of the building and is knocked down by a car. Inspector Jaime Peña (José Coronado) investigates the crime, but finds the task difficult as he is still plagued by the memory of his wife's death a decade earlier in a hit-and-run accident. Sometimes his emotions get the better of him.

Set largely in and around the morgue, Oriol Paulo's film is a masterpiece of modern film noir, complete with dark shadows, long tracking shots down corridors, and point-of-view shots where we share the protagonists' uncertainties about what is going on. To complicate the plot still further, he introduces flashbacks into the past lives of Jamie and Álex, to show how the past exerts an almost paralyzing influence over the present.

The action takes place one dark night, where the rain pours down outside, confining all the characters to the claustrophobic space of the morgue. Within that space, Jaime apparently tries his best to tease out the truth of the crime, but Álex keeps resisting him. On the other hand, Álex tries to communicate with his girlfriend Carla (Aura Garrido), in an attempt to elope with her, but finds his endeavors continually frustrated by circumstances. Neither he nor Jaime can apparently obtain what they want. In this disordered environment, the logic of cause and effect has been deliberately disrupted.

As the action unfolds, so director Paulo further complicates the action by introducing sequence that represent projections of the protagonists' imagination; in other words, putting their assumptions on screen. This further complicates our comprehension of the plot; we have no idea how to separate 'truth' from 'fiction'. This confusion makes the dénouement all the more shocking.

Brilliantly performed, with Coronado giving a quite outstanding performance as the guilt-ridden inspector, THE BODY deserves to be considered a modern classic.

Congratulations to Spanish cinema by presenting us with yet another thriller / mystery spectacular without showing explicit sex, as we have seen in some Spanish films. The movie is great! The way that every thriller should be: it leaves you lost, but arrives somewhere. And this place is beyond the obvious. The atmosphere of suspense and tension remains, and we are honored by the environment's main plot: nothing less than a morgue! The unwinding of the film is fantastic, amazing and high quality. The Spanish film hardly disappoints me. This one does not disappoint at any time. We watch unblinking eyes and is surprised as the quality of the excellent climate of suspense. The final part is amazing, leaves us with an open mouth and makes us wonder as was thought up this great script. Without blinking my grade is 10! Never has a movie surprised me as much as this in recent years.

Thanks again Spanish cinema!

A very exciting thriller with many interesting and surprised fluctuations which probably even had puzzled Hitchcock but also made him proud.

The film is very classic, almost old-fashioned, and it flirts healthy and often with particularly mentioned the horror master. The story moves very smoothly between Film Noir, and more traditional contemporary thriller.

"The Body" is about a woman's dead body disappears from the morgue. The husband of the deceased woman, quickly becomes a target of both, the murder of his wife and stealing the body. He was called to the scene to assist with the investigation. The interrogations led by the right shady Commissar, with his own dim past and hearings interspersed with flashbacks of the couple's life, which is played in various flashbacks.

Everything takes place in a proper rainy night in the morgue and the surroundings could hardly be more nasty and claustrophobic. The film really works admirably well and fooling with the viewer, exactly where it wants. The script is well written and although certainly a gap or two can be found, don't bother to look when you are in the middle, instead of being frightened and follow the clues presented.

The film is directed by Oriol Paulo, who two years ago-wrote sovereign "Julia's Eyes" in which Belen Rueda plays Julia and in "The Body" she plays the unsympathetic Mayka (the deceased), an incredibly believable performance. There are good actors in all roles and although sometimes the commissar is near the border of caricature so successful balancing act and it never gets too much.

The last scene when everything unraveled is somewhat contrived. Everything needs was not unfolded and some unanswered questions are good to keep a little spice, but despite the somewhat pedagogical explanations in the end, everything leading up to it wonderfully confusing and nerve wracking as well, as I really hope to get jump-to more such films by Oriol Paulo ahead.

7.5/10.