Borboleta Negra

Black Butterfly is a mystery/thriller. You feel that there are going to be twists so you try to figure out what the outcome will be. For once I had it right even though it wasn't necessarily obvious. My wife didn't see it coming. The story is far from perfect but it still remains a good movie to watch. The main characters are played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Antonio Banderas and they did a good job. Their complicity is what the movie makes it interesting to follow. And even if there were a couple faults in the story, not very big ones, Black Butterfly is a good movie for people who like this genre. It could have been better but than again I saw so much bad movies lately that I'm not going to be fussy about this one. Nicely shot, with good actors, and with an okay story with the necessary twists for a movie in this genre.

This film tells the story of a reclusive writer, who gets into a fight in a diner. A stranger helps him out, therefore the writer offers the stranger a place to stay. Little does the writer know, things will go the wrong way, and he is soon taken prisoner in his own house.

"Black Butterfly" has a thrilling story. The tension and thrill is palpable, especially when the stranger becomes increasingly deranged. One hour into the film, there is a major twist that gets me lost for a moment, but after making sense of the twist, I find it quite clever. It is a thrilling and an enjoyable film.

Paul Lopez (Antonio Banderas) is a struggling hard-drinking writer. His career is troubled. His money problem is forcing him to sell his property through realtor Laura Johnson (Piper Perabo). He gets into a road rage incident with a trucker. Drifter Jack (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) comes to his aid. Paul befriends Jack and brings him back to his home.

This thriller takes a big swing. It starts out with a standard creep story which turns into Misery adjacent. I'm fine with that. It has potential especially with good actors. Then the movie takes that big swing. Looking backwards, it's not a reasonable turn. I get the wish for a shocking reveal, but it relies on too many conveniences. The final scene is an acceptance that the twist is a writer's creation. All in all, I applaud them for taking the big swing even if it doesn't completely work.

I really enjoyed Black Butterfly, it was one of those movies that you kind of knew what was happening next, and then things turned out very differently. The 2 main characters were very well acted. I know a negative reviewer was saying alcoholics don't swig out of bottles, well as an alcoholic, I can tell you that was true to life, as was the early morning drinking, and blanking out and waking up in bed. The movie had a great location a secluded ranch style house and the tension was palpable almost from the start. I promise you, the ending was amazing and totally unexpected and a pleasant surprise. Overall a low budget movie which I enjoyed far more than Star Trek Beyond which cost $180 million dollars and which I refused to watch to the end. I am quite critical with movies, read my other reviews. This film is definitely worth viewing with pleasure and interest.

A remake of a foreign thriller, this version is worth your while if you've read the synopsis and the story sounds appealing.

The direction is crisp. Editing and cinematography are generally excellent. The story and script are tight and twisty. The casting is excellent -- Antonio Banderas was cast instead of Nicholas Cage and we can all be thankful for that. Jonathan Rhys-Meyers and Piper Perabo do a great job as well, as do the supporting players.

Sadly, the sound mix is one of the worst I've ever heard, due to the poorly mixed dialog tracks and one song that is cranked too loud (and not a great song at that). The dialog volume veers wildly all throughout the movie, from barely audible mumbling to deafening shouts. I had to watch this with my controller in hand to be ready to drop or raise the volume significantly at every radical shift.

The fact that two production sound mixers are credited might point to the problem (i.e. -- the first one might have been replaced for being incompetent), but there's no excuse for not fixing it in post so the ultimate blame belongs to the post supervisor and the dozen or so producers listed in the credits who should have insisted on and sprung for a better mix. Yes, post sound is an expensive item but it's also a critical feature.

Ironically, the sound efx are top notch. It might be a small triumph, but the gun shots are the most realistic shots I've ever heard in a movie.

If you like tense commercial thrillers, check it out. Just keep the volume control handy, particularly if your neighbors are sensitive to noise.