El reino

What an unbelievable actor is Antonio de la Torre! He has such a natural way of acting. The film itself was fantastic too.

''El Reino'' is a political thriller from Spain, directed by the talented Rodrigo Sorogoyen who also gave us the brilliant ''Que Dios nos perdone'', one of the best European thrillers of the decade. In this movie though he doesn't achieve the top level of his previous work. The film's protagonist, Manuel, -an exceptional performance once again by Antonio de la Torre- strives in order to stay alive in the country's political scene after being accused for a major scandal involving embezzlement and money laundering. The frenetic tempo of the first 45 minutes confused me and made me lost count of the names and ranks of the various characters which were introduced, but after Manuel's indictment the movie starts to feel more comprehensible and the story more concise. The editing is super-fast and even the soundtrack adds to the movie's rapid pace. We follow Mauel, who is present in nearly every single scene of the movie, witnessing his attempts to save himself as well as to extract revenge from the people who think that deceived him and made him a scapegoat. The last ten minutes, Manuel's tv interview, conclude the film in the best possible way with the journalist's final question remaining hanging for the viewer to think and dwell on. The picture of the Spanish political life in ''El Reino'' is not a flattering one as the high-ranking politicians are depicted as cruel, profiteering gangsters who enjoy luxurious lives at the expense of Spanish people who prefer to ignore the country's totally unreliable political system as they have to deal with the problems in their everyday lives which are caused by the nation's governments. There are points in the movie that offer food for thought and many viewers, especially those who live in Europe's southern countries, will recognize many of the depicted blemishes as their own. I would definitely give the movie a higher rating if it were not for the confusion of the first half which has a rather bewildering effect to the viewer because of the reasons I stated above. Overall, I believe that ''El Reino'' is a film worthy of recommendation despite its flaws, and it will appeal most to the fans of Spanish crime/thriller films as well as to those who enjoy political thrillers.

With a slightly shaky cam, a monotonous thumping techno score and some of the best performances of this year, we are introduced to a group of Spanish politicians with a serious fraudulent past. Their arrogance and naive feeling of invincibility is soon destroyed, when all their corrupt businesses are slowly brought to the attention of the press.

The gravity of the situation only hits the audience when it hits the characters: too late. In over their head with only a couple of options to save their own skin, they are put before several moral questions that will have you bite your finger nails the whole ride.

Manuel, the main character, seems a true human being that could have walked out of a real life politics debate for all we know. Antonio de la Torre's performance is out of this world! But not only he deserves credit for his amazing acting. No one ever misses a note and the result is a film full of conflicting personal relationships that are realistic in a rather scary way.

The music is a bit of a bummer though... The techno-beats never build up towards a finale, while the movie itself is a thrilling rollercoaster that ends in a frontal collision with a brick wall. This - as I already mentioned - monotonous score doesn't improve the movie one bit.

But the directing by Rodrigo Sorogoyen is compelling. He made a political scandal into a grand fight between rivals and friends. There is no violence. But I held my breath for the complete final hour. The ending was a bit too suden for my taste though.

Yet, I cannot stress this enough: it was rousing, it was absolutely riveting.

I really liked this movie. From the start tension is building up all the way to great finale on television show. Soundtrack is excellent and helps with building tension up. Acting is superb expecially main character Manuel. Plot is interesting but maybe sometimes hard to follow because there is lots of characters. Pacing of the movie is in my opinion not very well because in some parts lots of things are happening and in some parts it fells like notging important is going on. Movie would really benefit in being just a little shorter, maybe 10 minutes or so. All in all really enjoyable movie with interesting plot and I recommend it to all people.

This movie is brutal. From second one, it grips you in its story line about politics and corruption, with a tight and breathless script and amazing acting (de la Torre has an intensity that transpires from the screen, and here gives us again a bravura performance) and doesn't let go till the last very last frame. It may be *just another movie about corrupt politicians and their love of money and power, but it is so magnificently done, so beautifully shot, and so angry, that you won't be able to take your eyes from the screen. Watch it.