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Hard-hard-hard hitting ! Edge of the seat thriller. And the climax, could not have been better. Movies like Cell 211 come by once in a decade or so. Superb direction, extraordinary acting, rock solid script, impeccable camera-work. Cell 211 had all the makings of a Blockbuster.
The direction by Daniel Monzon is flawless. The way he built the story from the beginning kept me involved from scene 1 where the first inmate of cell 211 cuts himself. Mr.Monzon has to be a visionary to shoot the scene the way he did. The script is really-2 honest & no time was wasted with anything else. The movie came straight to the point - new guard, riot, Calzone inside - buckle up Dorothy coz this is going to be one hell of a ride! The thrill and action was nicely mixed up with the bedroom scenes of Calzone with his wife. It made me experience the passionate side of Calzone and source of his motivation to get out. Later, this also became the source of his anger and madness when he cuts up the guard who killed his wife. The build up had to be perfect to make me feel the sadness and anger which Calzone was feeling. I could almost feel myself cutting up that guard as I was so angry - how could he kill a harmless pregnant women? I really liked the fact that Mr.Monzon kept the script honest to what he wanted to convey - no distractions. He had only a handful of characters who he wanted to focus on and only they formed the primary part of the script - shows the vision of the screenplay writers & in this case, the director as well (Mr.Monzon did both).
The sets consumed me into the movie from the moment the riot broke out - the whole place trashed, rioting outside, whole movie shot within the prison. Its a unique style of direction when a movie is shot within a closed compound/room. I feel the whole intent is to make the viewer experience the movie as if he is himself there. The feeling is made real with hand-held camera-work and not standard industry crane-work all the time. Cell 211 had this quality. As I said, the movie stuck to the director's vision.
The actors gave it all. The two protagonists, Luis Tosar & Alberto Ammann, were outstanding. Luis is an accomplished Spanish actor and won many awards for his performances in Spanish films (acted in Miami Vice, 2006). The support actors did their part to perfection - I think Mr.Monzon extracted exactly what he wanted from his acting crew.
All in all, Cell 211 is an amazing thriller and a great work of Spanish cinema. Definitely a keeper. I rate this 9 out of 10.
score 9/10
aaditya-swaroop 20 November 2012
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2707564/ |
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29-4-2020 18:05:08