Uncle Scoopy's Fun House

"Te Doy Mis Ojos" (2003)

May I ask your attention for a Spanish movie? It's a movie that deservedly won 7 out of 9 Goyas, the Spanish equivalent of the Oscars, for which it was nominated. The film that I'm going to praise here is "Te Doy Mis Ojos" (2003; aka. Take my eyes) and is the tangible proof that you don't need a $100+ million budget to make a good movie, let alone a bad one.

The movie is a psychological (or even sociological) drama about domestic violence. Before anyone starts thinking "oh no, not one of these politically correct biased art films again that only pleases the target audiences it was made for", let me tell you that it carefully avoids this trap and clips # 4 and 5 are certainly not representative for the overall tone of the movie, far from. But let us reveal a bit of the story first.

One night in Toledo, Spain we see Pilar (Laia Marull) and her young son Juan seek shelter from her husband Antonio (Luis Tosar) at her sister Ana's (Candela Pe�a) house. Although her sister lives in a small place with her Scottish fianc� whom she is about to marry, she takes Pilar and Juan in, of course. Ana also finds out that the physical abuse of her sister has been going on for years and advises her to divorce. Antonio however is doing his utmost, or so it seems, to win his wife and son back and Pilar isn't ready either to give up her marriage to the man she truly loves. And it looks like he is going to succeed, Pilar returns home and he doesn't abuse her physically anymore. But is that enough to make a happy marriage?

Antonio is still working on his violent streaks, which are now aimed against objects and still scare the hell out of his wife. In the meantime faithful Pilar found a job as a museum guide, takes much pride in her work and develops her cultural knowledge as well. Jealous Antonio, on the other hand, remains stuck in his job as a surly salesman of electrical home equipment in his dad's business, and stays frozen in his usual attitudes. Furthermore he realizes that he is underachieving, which bothers him but not his wife. It is obvious that things will clash and come to a climax, given his past behavior. The result is not that physically violent for Pilar but very, very cruel and humiliating nevertheless.

The movie is in my opinion brilliantly made. The script explores every possible psychological angle of the subject with great subtlety. It would have been easy to fall into the trap of portraying Antonio as a brute who loves violence, we learn that in fact he doesn't, but he really sees no other way. At the end you certainly don't feel any sympathy for him, but you somehow feel a little bit sorry as well for this man with his limited social and educational skills who never learnt to express his feelings in a non-violent manner. The film also avoided to picture Pilar as a battered, weak, emotional and passive woman; that too would have been far to easy a clich�. As I mentioned before, the movie works on a much more subtle psychological level that fills you with a certain amount of empathy for both characters and until the last 10 minutes it keeps you dangling on how the story will unwind.

The flawless and subtle script never leads to boredom, while the lighting, the camera work and the editing are top notch. Director Ic�ar Bolla�n, also co-author of the script, clearly knew what she was doing, but what makes the movie work even better are the brilliant performances from the actors. Luis Tosar very accurately portrays a completely believable character, while Laia Marull is simply brilliant. Her facial expressions and manners are painstakingly realistic and keep you glued to the screen for the whole 103 minutes of the movie. You even wonder if she might have gone through a similar experience in real life. The combination of all aforementioned strong points makes watching this movie an eerily realistic experience that should be compulsory viewing for men with violent behavior. Sometimes a long good look in the mirror achieves more than hours of counseling.

Based on this review, this movie rates as B+. Normally I'm not a huge fan of this genre, and I saw many psychological/talkative drama's that couldn't hold my attention, but this one did from beginning to ending. 492 IMDb users rated it 7.5, with women appreciating it just a tad more than men. So the film clearly appealed to both sexes, plus to all age groups alike as well.

According to Yahoo! Movies this movie is set for release on April 25, 2005 in the US. It did well at the box office in its home country but incomprehensibly didn't have much of an international release so far. It is already available on DVD in Spain (� 9.99 in promotion at www.dvdgo.com) and as a rental in Belgium from www.dvdpost.be. It will also come to DVD as a retail version in Belgium an Holland at the end of this month and in France in April (title: "Ne dis rien"). The Spanish version has a commentary track as well as some extras from which the bathing scene portrayed in Vejita's caps from March 17, 2004 probably comes. My clips come from the Belgian rental version that didn't have any extras. The Spanish region 2 version has subtitles in English and French, but the Spanish hardly ever subtitle the extras, so I don't think I'll end up buying this version as my Spanish is too mediocre and I wouldn't understand them.

For those of you who might be tempted to give this film a go, I sincerely hope that I didn't spoil your viewing pleasure with this review. I really did my best not to give too much away, but reviewing the film without revealing anything proved impossible. For those of you who wonder if I am familiar with this kind of violence, let me assure you that I am not. It is just portrayed in such a way that it becomes so recognizable and real that you simply cannot stay untouched by this feature. Or maybe I just got carried away, but then so would have been the jury who awarded the 7 Goyas.

Tomorrow we'll take a look at what director Ic�ar Bolla�n, who is also an actress, looks like. Since this is the Fun House it will be a full frontal look of course. Or whadda ya thunk?

Nudity report:

- In one scene Laia Marull is nude in bed with her husband but only her breasts are visible. In another scene when her husband puts her on display on the balcony of their appartment she is bottomless wearing a bra only.

- Luis Tosar can be seen naked also, front and back.