The cinematography is beautifully moody, with a gorgeous blue and green hue haunting the whole film, across a very limited number of locations. I had heard about this film over at the Golden Age Detection group on Facebook, but didn’t think we would get an English release. The cast is also sparse, which works both for atmosphere and plotting. There are a couple of absolutely killer scenes, and there is one plot point in particular -when one victim’s phone rings… I won’t say anything more – which is heart in throat stuff. She tests and pushes Doria to his limit to draw out every angle on the case possible, and the detection is focussed as much on intuition and feeling – “ What does this puzzle say to you?”- as much as does on ratiocination and the deconstruction of evidence. A lot of the ‘detection’ is done by Goodman as she tries to unpick the motives, and double cross purposes of all involved. The film develops into a cleverly layered set of extremely twisty plots that build into a number of big crescendos. Goodman asks Doria to explain the events from the start as they happened, which gives us a very natural piece of exposition to bring us into the crime and it’s surrounding story. She starts a stop watch and places it one the desk, the untangling begins.Ī great hook right? The locked room angle and the ticking clock have you on the edge of your seat from the off. The judge has called for the witness to testify that same night, which means that Doria and Goodman have only three hours in which to figure out how the crime was committed and compose a solid defence, or he goes to prison for murder. Goodman comes with the news that a witness with a new piece of evidence has emerged for the prosecution. Doria’s high powered lawyer has employed the services of Virginia Goodman, a prestigious defence attorney who has never lost a case. The film opens with Adrián Doria, a hugely successful young business man, receiving a late night call at his apartment where he is now under house arrest for the murder. The Spanish title is ‘ Contratiempo ‘, the literal English translation of which is ‘ Against Time’, which I think would in some ways have been a better name, and I’ll explain why. This delicious problem is presented in the brand new Spanish impossible crime thriller The Invisible Guest by Oriol Paulo. The man is arrested as the only suspect, now about to stand trial for murder. The problem? All the doors and windows are locked from the inside, the door was watched, and there is no one else in the room. Calling out to the police for help they break down the door and storm in. Coming to, he finds his mistress lying dead in the bathroom, she has been bludgeoned to death. A man stirs from unconsciousness, sprawled on the floor of his hotel room, as he hears the police banging against the door.
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