I'd talk more about that one, but my wrist is cramping and I want to get to an undeniable masterpiece of narrative filmmaking which featured the best cinematographic work I've seen since Mulholland Drive. But that's not Intacto's main selling point, and perhaps that comparison is a little bit misleading. There aren't any incoherent plot skips and bizzare metaphysical realities here; the puzzle is meant to be solved (sort of like last year's Memento, but in a more somber, philosophical way), and the audience is left with a sublime mixture of smart entertainment and nature-of-reality type questions.

SPOILERS AHEAD.

The plot centers on the premise that some are born lucky, others luckier, and still others luckiest. Luck can be transferred like a commodity between the story's main players (Leonardo Sbaraglia, Eusebio Poncela, Monica Lopez, Antonio Dechent, Max Von Sydow) through touch; luck can be measured and gambled by engaging these characters in bizarre, completely chance-based games (the stakes are other people's lives) until one of them is deemed the most lucky person on earth through a game of russian roulette with the undenied God of luck thirty years running, Sam (who is also a Holocaust survivor).

We follow Tomas up through these ranks along with Frederico, whose luck was taken away at the beginning of the film, and we watch as both men develop their attitudes and characters in very unpredictable ways. Sara, a cop bent on fouling things up, and ultimately, as we learn later in the film, a survivor whose had her own miserable experiences with luck, DOESN'T, miraculously enough, serve as a love interest. Instead, she's used as a wonderful character in her own right, haunted by past mistakes and intent on setting things straight.

I'm surprised this whole luck idea hasn't been exploited more often (considering we have "destiny" in The Matrix, "setting things straight" in The Sixth Sense), and considering that the concepts of luck and chance occurance are backbones in a lot of narrative structures and have ample possibility to be played with in the story itself. In Intacto, this unique idea makes some of the most compelling (and visually stunning) action sequences I've ever seen in a film--particularly a brutal scene in which several "contestants" run blindfolded through a forest. Picture Luke Skywalker on his little hover thingy riding through that Ewokian forest--and now picture him doing it with a blindfold on. If he's lucky enough--well, you get the idea.

Then there's the climax of the movie. I won't give it away, not because it's an obnoxious, muddled plot solution (Vanilla Sky) or a twist-ending wannabe, but because I probably can't describe its complexity and communicate its nail-biting fantasticness, its absolutely mind-blowing virtuosity all in the same paragraph.

Anyway, after the audience was all mind-blowed, director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo answered questions (mostly plot-based stuff and "what's your inspiration?," bla bla bla) and fielded an absolute whorefest of distributor-type people, financing-type people, etc. So hopefully (and with luck, ha!), this one will be released somehow, somewhere (it better be released, and would certainly be successful if marketed right).

Anyway, I'm finished. Thank you for yr. soul.

Signed,

Rotten Fetus