Une Affaire Privée

Was pleasantly surprised by this one. Popped up on my Amazon Prime suggestion. I liked the artistic film style, the lighting, the era and the fast paced story line. Character are engaging. Looking forward to seeing more. Took a bit getting used to it being dubbed in English because the audio didn't sync with mouth movement but not a deal breaker. Worth watching more. Jean Reno is always a pleasure to see in movies. Had not heard of the main female actress before but she's is very cute and believable in this role. It reminds me of Murder on the Orient Express style of movie. Will be back for more.

The story takes place at the end of the 1940s in Galicia, where a sassy upper-class girl with a taste for mystery, Marina Quiroga, together with her butler Hector, sets out to hunt down the serial killer who has been stalking the city for months. I say it's "cute" because it doesn't seem too serious, even though it's about murder and a serial killer. In the first episode our heroine Marina complains the man her mother would have her marry has a "unibrow." Monobrow first appeared in a novel in the late 1960's and Unibrow in 1981. Frida Kahlo, who died in 1954 is arguably the most famous person with a unibrow on this side of the world, died in 1954. What did they call hers? Her self portraits left it clearly represented. Anyway, I digress. This was enough to make me pause the episode and get more history than I could ever want about the unibrow. So far, it's a great occupant of my downtime. Enjoy!

The story is not bad and the ending is quite surprisingly tragic. My problem is that she is unbearable. She's a condensate of cliche': the rich spoilt brat who jumps to conclusions and recklessly endengers herself but is surrounded by men ready to catch her in the moment of danger. This kind of character is so tiresome I struggled to get through all 8 episodes and I confess I skipped some parts. It kept me going that I was curious to know who the killer was. And the last episode was rewarding. Jean Reno as a not in your face delicate gay butler is sweet. I still remember him as a gentle but ruthless assassin in Leon.

I just started watching this series on Prime. A lot of people making reviews here of this show have complained about the English dubbing. Prime has this bad defect in that they seem to be the only streaming service that when living in the USA seams to automatically default to English dubbing of foreign shows. Please be aware that in most cases, you CAN turn it back to the original language and put on English subtitles.

When you use your remote, just tab down on it. You should see the actors in the scene shown. But above that are 3 icons. The middle one if you click on it allows you to select which language the movie has subtitles for. So obviously click English. The icon to the far right is the audio icon. In this show the original audio is Spanish. So select Spanish. Now the movie will show in it's original language and with English subtitles. It is Always better to watch a foreign show in the original language with English subtitles, rather than with bad English dubbing where nothing matches what the lips say they should say.

It looks fantastic and I could follow the story. I love Jean Reno. Both the plot and the story are very interesting. I love mysteries and it seemed very promising. Stylistically it is shot very well and the classic women are not allowed on the Police force theme is nicely handled by a very modern women not holding to those ideals. Unfortunately, I cannot follow something dubbed. Its very dizzying and I started to get a headache. If it is available in Spanish, which is its original language. I will watch it again and just use English subtitles which does not bother me. But viewer beware of the dubbing.