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Besos de gato (2003)
Intriguing, moving thriller - Spanish style
This is one of those thrillers they seem to do so well in Spain - a nail-biting ride, but with plenty of brain and heart.
As another reviewer has already said, it follows a simple Odyssey structure - a single night in Madrid, as a father (Fran) searches for his daughter and her boyfriend. The themes of family, guilt, decadence, corruption and retribution are all intertwined as we are inducted into the underworld of Madrid, with Fran as our guide.
Puigcorbe judges the performance very well - by turns aggressive, introspective; calm and rational one minute and paranoid and delusional the next. There are moments where the plot is a little unbelievable, for some tastes it may be a little overacted in places, and the music can be a little obviously manipulative, but these are minor flaws in an otherwise excellent film. I saw it on cinema release in Spain, and am disappointed it never got a proper showing in the UK. Having tracked it down on DVD, I wasn't disappointed second time around.