Storia di un crimine: Mauricio Leal

This is just a double murder committed out of jealousy. So what? What's so special in making a film out of this? That the brother is the culprit is easily suggested. What remained was how to fix him. With no one to interrogate the story writer appears at a loss to navigate the script. No weight in any of the characters. Detective Rebecca is apparently unsure about how to act or react, while the brother face remains expressionless all through. There is no re-enactment of the crime. Twenty days was too much for Rebecca to solve the case, given the accused brother's motive. Considerable footage also wasted in a song and dance sequence. A sheer waste of time to watch this film!

I finished watching this movie on Netflix and I asked myself what was the reason for the production of this movie, and why Netflix served us these cold noodles. After subtitles warning in the opening that the film is based on a true story, but what the viewer will see is all imagination, the business begins to unfold, and it becomes very clear that this is a crime, such as can be found in the crime section of any daily newspaper. What did the writer director find in this story something special, probably only he knows. There is no tension, no purpose, except for an investigator in trouble with herself and her strange relationship with her co-investigator, and with her superiors. In reality, she is not a police investigator. Disappointment and a waste of time, according to what is written in the closing credits, you can find out the end of the film that remains hanging in the air, in every newspaper in Colombia.

The film is inspired by a true story about the murder of a stylist and his mother. The stylist was one of a number of local star names in Colombia. He is found dead with his mother. A prosecutor investigates, in particular her brother, who seems a good suspect.

The film has its own atmosphere, with slightly offbeat characters and rather subtle acting, especially the brother and the prosecutor, the two main characters. It's also offbeat in that the film makes little use of extra diegetic music.

The film has the advantage of being quite short, lasting 80 minutes, even though it is relatively dense. The dramatic structure is very standard for Netflix productions, i.e. There's an initial event and then a series of flashbacks for a number of small dramatic sequences where we see the background of certain characters and their domestic lives. It's a typical affliction of these Netflix productions. As if it were necessarily interesting to have the main investigator's state of mind or family situations, for example. All in all, let's just mention the performances of the main actors, who are rather subtle and slightly offbeat, which adds a little salt and spice to the film.

Erm, what the actual heck? I was looking forward to a 'whodunnit' with intrigue, mystery and suspense, but no, not this movie! It could have been literally 1 minute long because that's how long it took to know the outcome. I continued to the end because I thought, no professional writer would surely have written this script where within 1 minute we know the killer and the reason why they did it. I honestly thought there was going to be some big revelation at the end and that it was not in fact this very obvious person with a very obvious motive, but guess what, no, the first 1 minute literally explained everything. How bizarre that someone would put material out like this and be okay with this standard. In reality they should have just made a 1 minute Youtube short and saved everyones time that they'll never get back.

I can't believe I stuck with this film for as long as I did. So predictable right from the start. The story line, if you want to call it that lacked development, lacked imagination and was convuluded at the end. It's as though they were trying to be original and surprising and come up with something new. The only scenes that were kind of cool was the hairstyles, make-up, and the clothes. The acting wasn't terrible but it wasn't the best either. Netflix, you can do better than this, especially what you charge your customers. I was going to give it a 1 rating but I changed my mind because I've never done that before.