Another first-time feature, this time from Spain is Juan Carlos Fresnadillo's slick and imag- inative thriller, Intacto. Slightly reminiscent of M. Night Shyamalan's Unbreakable, the film takes as its central premise the idea that luck is a tangible resource, and that some people have the ability to steal it from others. And in a shady underworld, 'lucky' individuals compete with each other in a series of high-stakes challenges to win entrance to the ultimate game -- one to one against the God Of Good Luck (Max von Sydow, on wonderfully lugubrious form). A very stylish movie from a hip young director, Intacto is further proof (if any more were needed) that Spanish-language cinema is currently enjoying a remarkably strong run.
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The Spanish thriller Intacto, which premiered in the Critics Week section, is another hit. Ambitious and stylishly shot, the big idea is that a group of high stakes thrill-seekers have discovered that luck is a commodity that can be stolen, collected and exchanged for individual benefit. Their ultimate goal is to challenge Max Von Sydow, a Holocaust survivor, with unbeatable good fortune. Though the film does not live up to its opening half hour, it is a notable achievement from debut director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, and likely to attract offers of Hollywood remake. I wonder if Woody Allen would be interested...
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This funny and disturbing film from first-time director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo is a treat for festival-goers, as it will be for everyone else when it gets a full release here early next year. It is a fantasy thriller with nods to Bryan Singer and M Night Shyamalan, and displays subtle borrowings from Borges' The Babylon Lottery and MR James's Casting the Runes.
Max von Sydow gives a brilliantly engaged performance as Sam, the owner of a bizarre casino in a stunningly photographed, dreamscape desert. Eusebio Poncela is his employee Federico, a preternaturally "lucky" individual employed simply to deploy a secret magical touch on customers who are doing too well at the roulette tables and drain them of their good fortune. When Federico leaves Sam's service, it is to mentor Tomas (Leonardo Sbaraglia) - a criminal left astonishingly unscathed in a plane crash - in an underground, occult network of gambling contests between super-lucky übermenschen in which the combatants play for terrifyingly high stakes, and, in a further refinement, for the "luck" of other people.
It is a brilliant and intriguing premise in which the fantasy aspect never dilutes the impact, nor undermines the unexpectedly authentic humanity of the people involved. These include an unbeatably lucky bullfighter and a cop investigating Tomas's disappearance. She is also a potential player in this sinister league, having miraculously survived a car crash that killed her husband and child. The film - yet another to ride on the exhilarating wave of talent from Spain and Latin America - sports elegantly with the notion of survivor-guilt and the idea that an excess of luck is karmically paid for with a loss of love.
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Sam is, needless to say, a fearsome adversary, never defeated – and is played here by Max Von Sydow, who as ever looks (to borrow a line from The New Yorker’s Anthony Lane) like a Lutheran pastor who slipped sideways into drama. His flinty presence can be relied upon to lend even the most preposterous story a degree of gravitas, and here he is singularly well-used: more monolith than man, he communicates an imperturbable calm that anchors this film’s stylistic extravagances.
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Vibrant colour schemes and dry desert landscapes dominate the screen in Juan Carlos Fresnadillo’s first feature film. Intacto explores the concept of luck and though it is similar in theme to M. Night Shyamalan’s Unbreakable, it veers off in a different, equally intriguing direction.
At the outset of the film, one cannot be entirely sure where events are taking place. The setting looks like earth, but an otherworldliness permeates the film as it journeys into a chilly, underground realm of gamblers and desperate believers in luck. Holocaust survivor Sam (a riveting turn by Max von Sydow) lives underground, beneath a casino on a Spanish island. He seems to possess – and to be able to manipulate – good luck, a commodity that can be given and taken away in Intacto’s netherworld.
When his right-hand man, Federico (Eusebio Poncela), an earthquake survivor, decides to branch off on his own, Sam takes away his luck with a parting embrace. Federico vows revenge. Seven years later, he encounters Tomas (Leonardo Sbaraglia), the lone survivor of an airplane crash, and takes him under his wing. The pair are soon playing high-risk games of chance to acquire money and experience and, hopefully, to prepare for a final showdown with Sam. Their progress is frequently deterred, however, by the meddling of policewoman Sara (Monica Lopez) – also possessed of uncanny good luck – who suspects Tomas of a robbery. The characters ride the film’s thematic wave, demonstrating Fresnadillo’s devotion to controlled and austere filmmaking and his focus on creating a strange netherworld that is definitely out of synch with our own. Despite the constant use of enclosed environments and nighttime scenes, Intacto is never claustrophobic; rather, it is strange, cool and compellingly eerie.
Fresnadillo works here with confidence and ease; not since Alejandro Amenábar’s Thesis has a Spanish director made so considerable an impact with such style.
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