Las horas del día

I like to think I'm a bit of a cinephile, certainly the majority of the films I really like are either foreign or art-house films; but this film really did nothing for me.

The story centers around Abel, an ordinary guy who works in a clothes shop. On the surface he leads a fairly normal (if a little dismal) life. He lives with his mother but is looking for a place of his own. He has a steady relationship with a beautiful girlfriend, and manages his business amiably. But underneath this calm facade lurks a vicious streak which waits to make itself known.

I sincerely apologise, because if you go in to see this film after reading that review you'll hate my guts. On the surface, it seems the point of this film is to be as pretentious as possible. It's filmed in academy, for goodness sake. There are long, tedious shots of nothing in particular, and reams of meaningful dialogue which hint at unfathomable significance. But what really got me was the banality of it all; and perhaps this was the point of the film. There was no tension to the scenes where Abel attacks his victims, and no development to his character - he didn't strike me as a tortured soul pushed over the edge, or some vicious character behind a facade of normality. He just seemed to be an asshole set on ruining peoples days (and lives, etc) The girl I was with actually fell asleep during the first murder.

The only emotion this film managed to elicit from me was annoyance at having wasted two hours of my life watching it. I give it three stars; and the only reason I gave it that was the talent it took to make murder into a non-event.