At the End of the Tunnel

Not all the plans are foolproof.

Not quite what I was looking for, but still I had a nice time watching it. This is an Argentine crime-thriller. Minimal cast film and entirely shot a building and its surroundings. Literally, it was always a dark atmosphere, like it all happened at night time. The opening parts were intentional as everything deliberately put together for a quick start. It was not a matter of cliché, but knowing how all these stories begin, they did not waste time for all the details. Just the glances at related stuffs revealed all the necessary details, like unmaintained backyard, crashed car, photographs et cetera, would tell the story all you wanted to know. Even though the film ran for two hours.

So you might think they filled entire film with a tight plot, but that's not what really happened. Watching a film over that long was the tricky part, because there's no significant change in the narration in the first half, everything was in the following half. This is the story of a paraplegic computer engineer who is living alone in his house, but most of his time he spends at the basement working with computers. He was not as mysterious as he looked at the first glance. You will know him well with the progression of the story. Not from the past, but moving forward, and his intentions.

It's about the time a single mother and her young daughter come asking him the room as they saw the rental signboard placed outside. It all happens suddenly where she moves in in the next few hours. As staying together, there's no proper connection was made between them, her attempts does not bring any positive. As the days go by, he discovers some gang is planning a heist in the next building. Now all his focus come into it and it's time to decide how to deal it, and once he did, his plans and its executions are what takes the centre stage in the remaining narration.

❝In the end no matter how organised your plan is, it always depends on either a girl or luck.❞

You probably would make a couple of guesses how it's all going to shape up, in particular how the finale sets up. So it is not that suspense if you think it would be. All the heist films you have seen in your life would make it easier for you to have many perspectives, whenever there comes a twist or turn. The bad part was the characters. All the film characters were clichéd. Like every weakness, strength is for a reason and those were not protected well for revealing it in the later parts. So concentrate every scene, even a small scene without ignoring. They all come into play in the crucial segment.

It was something like a well known story and character pattern, except the settings, which kind of gives a fresh look for the product. The fist one hour was too slow, no exciting developments. It's all between two groups, one was the criminal gang with a major plan in their hand and the second was a family, well, it was almost like a family in the next door. All the events happen separately, but once the contact was made in the final act, the slow drama turns a fast paced thriller.

But again, it compromises in the confrontation part. If you are going to expect a big face-off after what it all were developed in the earlier section, that's a pretty disappointment. But still it is a good film to watch once. Not a silly film on the overall, a theme like this to design takes quite a brain, though not a genius film and it was pretty neatly done. Especially the kind of audience they were aiming for, is not particular anyone, but mostly everybody.

Whatever the characters were, the cast was excellent. They all performed their parts accordingly, including that little kid. Except it was a long film, if you are okay with a simple and entertaining product, this will do fine. For those who anticipate clever twists and turns, this will fall into an average. There were lots of opportunity to improvise the screenplay, but it was in my mind that I thought it should have been like this and that who is having opinions on the film that was already made. And that's the expectation that will kill your entertainment. I'm getting used to it, so for me it was a decent film and I'll recommend it to the selected viewers.

7/10