Bosque de sombras (2006)

User Rating:

5.8/10   

Director:

Koldo Serra

Writers:

Jon Sagalá (writer)
Koldo Serra (writer)

Release Date:

16 February 2007 (Spain)

Genre:

Drama | Thriller

Plot:

An English couple's holiday in Spain is interrupted when they discover a girl imprisoned in a cabin.

Plot Keywords:

Couple | Cabin | 1970s | Hands | Culture Shock

Cast

Gary Oldman	...	Paul
Paddy Considine	...	Norman
Aitana Sánchez-Gijón	...	Isabel
Virginie Ledoyen	...	Lucy
Lluís Homar	...	Paco
Yaiza Esteve	...	Nerea
Andrés Gertrúdix	...	Antonio
Jon Ariño	...	Lechón
Kandido Uranga	...	Miguel
Álex Angulo	...	Jose Andrés
Savitri Ceballos	...	Jose Andrés' daughter
Patxi Bisquert	...	José Luis
José Andrés Zalguegui	...	Bar Tender
Ramón Churruca	...	Ignacio
Isabel Jiménez	...	Waitress

Also Known As:

BackWoods (International: English title)
The Backwoods (France)

Runtime:

Argentina:153 min

Country:

UK | France | Spain

Language:

English | Spanish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Australia:MA (2006) | Finland:K-15 | Argentina:18 | Spain:18 | Singapore:M18 | Netherlands:16 | Norway:15 (TV rating)

Filming Locations:

Navarra, Spain

Company:

Divine Productions

Quotes:

Norman: I'm just trying to think!
Paul: Don't think! Let me think for both of us!

Movie Connections:

References "Little House on the Prairie" (1974)

Soundtrack:

There is a war

Okay, here's why it gets a ten

First, what's wrong with it. Aside from Cohen's wonderful song, the sound and music were poor and didn't add anything. The cinematography was not particularly inventive or inspiring.

But still a 10.

Why?

Okay you have to catch what this excellent writing is up to.

The twist at the end is pure and righteous symmetry.

It's about justice and revenge, an atypical and furious interpretation of right and wrong. It's got a piece of The Unforgiven about it.

It posits that some things just can't be fixed, and that the penalty does often indeed involve even more suffering of the innocent.

All the acting is excellent. The direction is excellent.

The writing is difficult, twisted, demanding, and wonderful, hard to grasp at first, hard to at first grasp, even at the end. But within it's own pained logic of warfare, just.

The heroic transformation is really spectacularly fierce in that the delivery of justice and punishment requires such a high price to be paid by the destroyed innocent, and the hero, that it at first doesn't even seem like justice.... but it sinks in, that it is.

Sure, it has deliberate echos of Deliverance, but it's actually much more sinister and indirectly more disturbing, not just to personal safety, but to our perception of right and wrong, and justice, punishment, and revenge.

It reminds me in some ways of Death and the Maiden.

It could have almost been a stage piece.

If it wasn't low budget and foreign, with non-U.S.-well-known writing and directing, and with higher "production values", it would have made big stink here.

Or maybe not. Us Americans are often so dull about clear winning and losing, that they get lost in movies like this. Our loss.

Oh, and I want to thank Gary Oldman for taking a shot at this. I wouldn't have known about it or seen it with him, and I thank him for roping me in!

God only knows what great stuff I miss from not having the time to watch everything! I wish I could clone myself and have them watch it so, I would have reviews I could trust! ;)