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“The Invisible Guest”–What You See is Not What You Guess

 

The Invisible Guest 

The Invisible Guest (2016) (Spanish: Contratiempo) is a 2016 Spanish crime thriller by director and writer Oriol Paulo. The intricate plot will leave the viewer spellbound .

Adrián Doria, a successful business entrepreneur, husband and father, is knocked unconscious, and wakes up in a locked hotel room to find the dead body of Laura Vidal, his married lover. Charged with murder but wealthy enough to be out on bail, Adrian soon learns that his lawyer, Félix Leiva, has hired the renowned defense attorney, Virginia Goodman, to represent him. She visits him late one evening to inform him that a witness has come forward to testify against him. He must tell the whole story quickly so she can prepare his defense. Goodman pulls no punches in the resulting cat-and-mouse game.

No spoiler alerts here! Suffice it to say that you must pay attention with every scene, even though–as in many foreign films–the pacing sags in the middle. The viewer will be rewarded, however, with clues and red herrings that are purposeful and complex, not suspecting how the interconnections make sense. The Invisible Guest requires more than the usual demands on the viewer’s attention in order to follow the plot.

Just when you think you have a reasonable explanation for what has taken place and who the probable perpetrator is, a new scene with a different point of view enters, and you are wondering again who is guilty of the crime. The story becomes so populated with different points of view and arguments back-and-forth with Virginia Goodman that the viewer is engaged up to the final reveal.

The narrative and plot remind me of Gone Girl with a number of unreliable versions of the crime scene. This masterpiece consistently changes the game, raising more questions than it answers. Consequently, the viewer parses the dialog and several accounts of the crime into puzzle pieces– but they don’t fit. The Invisible Guest is crafted so well that you don’t  see the intricately woven web  unravel as it does. There is always the who before the why.

The Invisible Guest is a winner! This Spanish gem is thrilling, suspenseful, mind-blowing, an edge-of-your-seat riveting tour-de-force for thriller/mystery enthusiasts and psychological film-noir fans.

Note: Available on Netflix streaming.

 

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“Colette”–A Woman Ahead of Her Time

 

Colette movie

Guest reviewer: Barbara Donsky, author of the memoir, Veronica’s Grave

 

“Colette,” opens in the countryside of rural France as we meet the young Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (Keira Knightley) at home in Burgundy. In short order, a successful Parisian writer known as “Willy” (Dominic West) pays a visit to Saint-Saveur-en-Puisaye, and before long he and Sidonie are enjoying an energetic romp in the hayloft. Soon after, Sidonie (destined to be known simply as ‘Colette’) is installed as his wife in Paris.

But when Willy begins having problems with creditors, he convinces her to write a novel under his name. In fact, he locks her in a room! “Write!” he bellows. So she pens a story about a sassy country girl, “Claudine,” which becomes a literary sensation. Willy wants yet another novel from her and another. And so it goes. She will not write a book under her own name until she breaks with Willy, a wily philanderer, in 1906.

In fin de siècle Paris, Colette will go from enabling wife to the grand-mere of feminist literature and a bisexual adventuress. In this beautifully filmed biographical drama, you can track her transformation by her clothing—from the yellow country dress to the mannish suits. When her husband buys her an expensive Parisian gown— at a time when society ladies were dripping in jewels and wearing extravagant designs— she wants no part of it. Indeed, her idol was Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin, who wrote under the pen name George Sand and preferred wearing men’s clothing.   Colette the movie

Colette’s self-confidence changed a country girl into a fashion icon, the most photographed woman of her time. Doing so, according to the director Wash Westmoreland, at a time when a woman could have been arrested in Paris for wearing men’s clothing.

The film is a joy! Oscar-whispers are circulating for Kiera Knightley.

 

Note: Barbara Donsky’s last review for us was “Cezanne et Moi” –Artistic Jealousy (June 27, 2017)

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“Ozark” (Season 2): “Dexter” Meets “Breaking Bad”

 

 

Ozark Season 2

Marty Byrde (played by Jason Bateman), his wife Wendy (Laura Linney), teenage daughter Charlotte and son Jacob continue as criminal minds laundering money for a Mexican drug cartel with roots in Chicago. The introduction of Helen Pierce ( the stunning Janet McTeer) as the attorney for the drug cartel ratchets up the ruthless and cunning subplots that made Season 1 of “Ozark” (see September 20, 2017 review) so addictive to watch.

The Byrdes are finally settling in to the Ozarks, compartmentalizing their illegal activities which they excel at with their determination to instill family values in their children which they fail at.

Dangers are everywhere–within their family, obviously from the cartel, but also from an Ozark family “cursed” to a life of crime–the Langmores– and from another Ozark family–the Snells– who are heavily involved with both local politics and maintaining their own hold on distributing illegal drugs from their “poppy” farm.

Ironically, Ruth Langmore (talented newcomer Julia Garner), yearns for a way out of the “curse” blocking her attempts to find the family and values she wants.

All three deformed families conjure up writhing snakes in a pit in which survival is ugly, bloody, and momentary advantage is the key stratagem.

The Byrdes find that every transaction involves betrayal, violence, and passive witnessing of atrocity. In the process, each member of the family gives up a piece of themselves until there is not much remaining of themselves to give up.

Marty’s mantra is that we all make our own choices and are responsible for how our lives turn out. But “Ozark” demonstrates–like “Breaking Bad” and “Dexter”–that circumstances can limit our options, until we become so flawed that we feel cornered and trapped with no options.

In Ozark season 2 we wonder how it will end: Will the Byrdes – and their children – ever be able to feel safe, secure, and content?

This season is even better than the first in tackling the corrupting power of wealth and greed, human nature, and the ties that bind a family and define it.

Note:  Ozark is a Netflix Original series.

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“The Wife”–The Invisible Woman, or…Stand by My Man

The Wife movie

The Wife, based upon Meg Wolitzer’s bestselling novel by the same name, opens with a sixty-something affluent couple, Joan Castleman (Glenn Close) and her husband, Joe (Jonathan Pryce), waiting for the phone to ring in the middle of the night. A perhaps futile hope that the Nobel Prize committee will grant Joe his dream of a lifetime–the Nobel Prize in literature.

Like two kids, Joan and Joe jump on the bed, ecstatically holding hands, singing “I won the Nobel.” Or was that a “we?” It is 1992 and Joe and Joan Castleman’s lives are about to be changed irrevocably.

A raw unfolding of secrets, infidelity, resentment, self-sacrifice, delusion, and rage erupt from the couple’s souls and that of their son, who is reminded by his father that he is merely a shadow of his own greatness. What a wonderful homage to father-son, and to husband-wife! The complexities of their relationships reveal a whirlwind of bliss and toxicity (not unlike Ingmar Bergman’s classic “Scenes from a Marriage”.) Contradictory emotions can coexist in a marriage: warm and playfully tender, or dark and destructive.

The Wife is, first and foremost, about the wife who stands by her man, often as a character alibi: ‘My husband is a good person in spite of what I know.’ But what happens when the secrets twist around like snakes: the talent is not where the husband thinks it should be? And the wife feels compelled to prop him up.

In several scenes Joe and Joan are at gala events to celebrate his reputation as a world-renowned author–at university gatherings, book events, and finally in Stockholm for the Nobel Awards ceremony. An entire unspoken code of power is expressed simply by who’s standing where and who is recognized as worthy of eye contact. The wives make eye contact of their own. At one point when asked the dreaded question –what do you do?–Joan Castleman responds: “I am a king maker.”

Enter Nathaniel Bone (played perfectly by Christian Slater,) an ambitious young writer who wants to dig deep into the enigmatic life of Joe Castleman. He’s done his research and speculates that there is considerable backstory to Joe Castleman’s literary success.   In a series of lengthy flashbacks of the younger Joe and Joan (played by Annie Stark, Glenn Close’s daughter), their early years of marriage promised their lives would be content and fulfilling.  On the other hand, Nathaniel suspects that Joan was a king maker in ways she hasn’t revealed.

The Wife delicately yet powerfully eviscerates the vulnerability of the narcissistic male ego and how it destroys all those nearby. The son suspects he knows the family hellscape.

Glenn Close’s almost supernaturally subtle, superbly self-controlled face in close-up says it all, communicating emotion and intention: resignation, understanding, sacrifice, love, and not-quite imperceptible rage transforming and flickering in and out in mere seconds. This is acting at its finest.

The Wife is one of the best films of 2018 and offers viewers a chance to observe one of the finest performances Glenn Close has ever given.  I predict she will be nominated for an Academy Award for this role.

Note: Currently playing in theaters.