Séptimo

A subject quite intriguing. A father who lost his two children playing a game that her wife had forbidden: who goes down faster from the seventh floor where they lived. Him by the elevator. Them down the stairs. However, when he reach the ground their children are not there. Suddenly commonplaces became unknown, mysterious. The performance of Ricardo Darin, great in films like Nine Queens and The Secret in Their Eyes, this time is not convincing and does not achieve the level of desperation that reaches for example Hugh Jackman, also as a father of a kidnapped girl in Prisoners, which compels him to cross the border of what is political correctness. Nor Belén Rueda reaches the level shown in The Orphanage where she also gives life to a mother whose son disappears in her own home. The end is resolved too quickly and with serious gaps in the plot (for example, how did her wife know exactly when will they play that game? It meant that someone had to be perennially waiting behind the door to catch the children? ). Anyway, absolutely forgettable film.

This is a highly suspenseful and cerebral mystery , filled with twists and turns . Mystery , intrigue about bizarre facts happen in a block of luxurious apartments in Buenos Aires . The same team - actor (Ricardo Darin) and producer (Axel Kuschevatzky) , who made ¨Tesis Sobre Un Homicidio¨, ¨ and ¨The secret of you eyes¨ bring us another suspenseful film : ¨Septimo¨ . The picture is interesting and some moment brilliant , and the actors are quite reliable such as Ricardo Darin and Belen Rueda . As a father (Ricardo Darin) gets into a desperate search to find his two children who disappeared while going down stairs from their apartment in the seventh floor . A bit later on , his anxious mother (Belen Rueda) appears upset to find her children .

The film contains tension , thriller , drama , mystery and plot twists , including decent suspense with tense sequences especially in its final part , in a unexpected denouement , near of the end . Hitchcock-style psychological thriller , being surprisingly good and compellingly realized . The original as well as entertaining idea is overspread throughout the movie , but not totally satisfactory , including conventional pitfalls . The main cast is frankly fine , such as Ricardo Darin as a wealthy lawyer working for a dark firm and Belen Rueda as his Spanish wife . Darin is an excellent leading figure of the most important Argentinian movies such as : "El Faro" (1998), "El Mismo Amor La Misma Lluvia" (1999), "Nueve Reinas" (2000), "La Fuga" (2001) and especially known for ¨The secret in your eyes¨ and ¨El Hijo De La Novia¨ . Belen Rueda also starred several hits in Spanish cinema such as ¨El Orfanato¨, ¨Los Ojos De Julia , ¨The Body¨ and many others . The motion picture is pretty well , although sometimes stagy and packs excessive turns ; however is entertaining for continuous suspense . Sinister and mysterious atmosphere including a colorful cinematography , as it is finely photographed by cameraman Lucio Bonelli . Suspenseful and stirring musical score by Roque Baños , a expert on dark environments as proved in Cell 211 , Fragiles, Machinist, Sexy beast, Intruders and Evil dead .

The film was well produced by various producers , such as Julio Ariza , Álvaro Augustín , Blanca Formáriz , Jordi Gasull , Axel Kuschevatzky , Andrés Longares , Nicolás Matji ; all of them have produced a lot of successes in the new Argentina/Spanish cinema . Being professionally written and directed by Patxi Amezcua who formerly realized only ¨25 Kilates¨ and wrote and ¨Bruc , ¨El Desafío¨ and ¨El Viaje De Arian . The movie will appeal to suspense buffs and Ricardo Darin/Belen Rueda fans . Rating : 6,5/10 ; Good , better than average . It's well worth watching and contains some really thrilling scenes and suspenseful images .

In Fabien Bielinsky's great film, 'Nine Queens', Roberto Darin brilliantly plays a charming con- man. We never know until the end which side of the con he is on; but somehow, one can't help rooting for him, even though he doesn't deserve it. In 'Septimo', Darin again plays a man potentially caught up in a trick. But the problem with this brief film is that is provides little evidence to judge the man's character: it's clear he's let people down in the past, he seems to be reasonably straight now, but the audience has little choice but to root for him as a conventional hero; I found I didn't really care either way. Darin remains one of my favourite actors; but the material here is too thin to make the best use of his talents.

Writer/Director Patxi Amezcua (with Alejo Flah as co-writer) presents this Argentinean thriller SEPTIMO, essentially a two person drama that is powerful and predictable – until the very well conceived ending.

Sebastián (Ricardo Darín) and Delia (Belén Rueda) are divorced, have two children, Luna and Luca, and Delia is attempting to force Sebastián's hand for full custody of the children (the children are happy kids equally devoted to both parents. Sebastián arrives to take the children to school and Delia makes him promise to prevent the children from playing on the lengthy stairs that lead form the 7th floor to the lobby. Delia leaves, Sebastián gives in to the children's pleas to walk down the stairs, and the children go missing. Sebastián is a lawyer and must be in court for an important case, but when the children go missing he spends every moment looking for them – with a bit of help from the janitor and a police officer who lives in the building. Ultimately Delia is notified and the two await information from what appears to be a kidnapping. The children are finally released and the remainder of the film is a conflict that must not be shared in a review. Suffice it to say that the ultimate revenge served to Sebastián's wife is as devastating as the 'kidnapping'.

Darin and Rueda find the right degree of friction and compassion in this well-constructed film. The story has been done before, but this version has true grit – and intelligence. Grady Harp, December 14

The idea was pretty good, the trailer was amazing, everyone in Argentina except a lot about this movie, the actors were good, the part made by Ricardo Darin was very well done, like always, but there are plenty of problems, Belén Rueda wasn't the best choice for Delia, the same happens with Jorge D'Elía and the kids, there were plenty of missing things in their play, the movie was too short, the climax and the resolution of the films happens in about 25 minutes, the amount of suspects is very small, there are not plenty of different endings that the viewer can imagine. One good thing about the movie was the photography about Buenos Aires, i believe that that worth seeing the movie. Isn't the best Argentinian film of the year, neither the worst, it's an OK thriller, about the worst thing that could ever happens to a dad with a very "deus ex machina".