El gato desaparece

Carlos Sorín, best known for his humanistic storytelling, makes a radical shift in tone with The Cat Vanishes, confining the action to a middle-class Buenos Aires home and diving into a psychological chamber thriller, restrained and rich in ambiguity.

The story begins with Luis returning home after a stay in a psychiatric institution. Though doctors claim he is cured, his wife, Beatriz, isn't entirely convinced. Luis seems to behave normally, but a strange incident and the mysterious disappearance of the family cat-who attacked him upon his return-spark a wave of doubt in Beatriz. From that moment, the narrative aligns with her perspective, building suspense more through suggestion than revelation.

Sorin masterfully employs off-screen space, framing shifts, and Beatriz's subjective perception to generate tension. The result is a psychologically layered story, where fear stems not from overt events but from the distorted-or perhaps accurate-perceptions of a woman unsure whether she's living with a recovered man or a latent threat. The film constantly toys with this uncertainty: is Beatriz falling into paranoia, or is Luis still dangerous?

Stylistically, the film occasionally echoes the domestic Hitchcock, Chabrol, and classic Argentine noir, but it bears Sorín's signature touch: subtle dark humor and a clean narrative line that avoids distractions or unnecessary subplots. Everything focuses on the essential-fear, mistrust, and the unspoken.

If there's a weak point, it might be that Sorín doesn't fully explore the couple's emotional crisis, and certain visual motifs repeat themselves to the point of slightly diminishing the tension. Still, The Cat Vanishes is a solid genre piece-elegant in its execution and effective in its handling of ambiguity.

'El Gato Desaparece' is a nice little movie, nothing else. Don't expect to find a life changing story, an intricate or deep plot or a fantastic twist at the end. It's just a nice way of spending ~90min.

Lius Luque plays a Professor who has been recently released from a mental institution after a violent outbreak. His performance is correct. Beatriz Spelzini plays his wife, who is apprehensive of her husband's apparent full recovery. Her performance as an increasingly nervous women is outstanding.

There's nothing more I can say because there's not much more happening throughout the film (which is not a bad thing). The score is great.

Overall I found it entertaining.

7/10

I saw this at the Toronto Film Festival and am sorry to see that it has not yet received wider distribution. It's about a professor who returns home after being hospitalized for a serious psychotic episode, but his wife is not certain that all is well. And the cat has mysteriously vanished, too. What's going on here? This is one of the most satisfying homages to Hitchcock that I have ever seen. Though, low key, it is very witty and playful. It does not go in for broad gestures, but subtle ones instead. The suspense is initially seems almost an afterthought, and then it builds up by slight degrees until it reaches a suitably droll Hitchcock-ian conclusion. The director, Carlos Sorin, spoke at the screening and said that he was not used to making this kind of movie and that he had no plans to make any more. I certainly hope that he reconsiders because he brings a great deal of wry humour and directorial skill to this project. I saw another more highly touted Argentine film this year, Carancho, but I thought this film was easily superior, partly because of its lightness of touch. Well worth seeking out if you ever get the opportunity to see it.

Despite being classified as a psychological thriller, the truth is that it is a film that is more drama-oriented. The premise it offers is interesting, but the film itself, instead of being intriguing, is actually boring and disappointing. As for the production, the film has good quality. It is well directed, well edited, well produced and well acted. It has the resources to be a good movie. The problem is that it was mistakenly classified as a suspense film and the truth is that it fails in several aspects. At first absolutely nothing happens and everything goes normally, pretending that the idea is not to show the viewer anything until giving them an unexpected surprise at the end. Then come a couple of things that make Beatriz begin to suspect Luis's condition. The disappearance of the cat could have served to provide a good surprise in the outcome, even if it was somewhat predictable or cliché. After having passed the middle of the film, the atmosphere becomes a little more tense and there is a sequence in which Beatriz has a nightmare that is very well executed. Everything reaches a point where it is not known if Luis is really still mentally unstable or if Beatriz is the one who is going crazy. The film ends leaving only a doubt and a disappointment to what should have been a suspenseful story. The film certainly had enough energy to be a passable thriller, but all of that was thrown out the window. As much as it has a good production in many aspects and a level of subtlety, El Gato Desaparece is at the end yet another proof of the mediocrity of Argentine cinema. The film does not even deserve praise even though some have understood its true intention, the reality is that El Gato Desaparece is a poorly mediocre and forgettable film with wasted potential. My final rating for this movie is a 5/10.