Agnosia

(2010) Agnosia (In Spanish with English subtitles) PSYCHOLOGICAL MYSTERY THRILLER

Pointless, movie centering on a young girl who went blind once falling to the ground, hitting her head. As it turns out she suffers from 'agnosia' an inability to interpret sensations and hence to recognize things, typically as a result of brain damage. "As the only one who knows the industrial secret left behind by her father, the enigmatic young girl will become the victim of a sinister plan, to get the information out of her by taking advantage of her sensory confusion. As the plot unfolds, the two men closest to her will become crucial to its outcome: Charles, Joana's fiance and her father's right hand man, and Vincent, a young, impulsive servant working at the Prats' mansion." imdb.com Extremely boring movie with very hard to read subtitles.

This movie was not all that I had expected from it, not by a long shot. And while the movie really had every opportunity to dish out something truly unique it just managed to muster a mediocre result.

The story is a strange combination of a love story and a woman's tragic story of suffering from a rare affliction that leaves her overly sensible to stimuli through all senses.

I will say that it was the storyline that killed the movie for me, as the acting in the movie was quite good.

"Agnosia" wasn't a particularly entertaining movie, although visually it was stunning. Lots of really nice details in costumes, sets, props and the like.

I found "Agnosia" to be too long and not particularly satisfying for my interest in movies. As such, it scores a mere four out of ten stars rating from me.

At first glance Agnosia seems like a historical thriller. Maybe with some supernatural elements. When you start watching the movie, you think you're going to watch an industrial espionage thriller. As the movie progresses, you get more and more confused about the movie genre: At some point looks like is going to turn into a horror movie, then it shifts to thriller, then looks more like a love story... And that is what essentially is. Everything in the movie is a vehicle to narrate a touching, passionate and dark love story. Know that and you'll enjoy the movie. Watch the movie expecting a thriller, or horror, or whatever and you'll be disappointed, bored and a little angry, as most Spanish critics (being from Spain I argue a lot defending this movie) seem to be.

Moving on from that, you get an interesting screen writing (in which, again, everything, including the disease that names the movie, is a device for the love story) with a great directing work (although at some points the movie rhythm is a bit irregular), a great setting and photography, and astonishing performances. You'll find a lot of influences, from Poe to pulp magazines, even some Brian De Palma, which may sound weird, and in fact it is. But for me, works perfectly. The only reason it doesn't get a 10 is for the minor flaws mentioned above.

Not being a fan or romantic movies, I can't say it's the romantic movie of the decade. But it's the only romantic movie of the decade that has touched me.