Agnosia

Casts : Martina Gedeck, Eduardo Noriega, Bárbara Goenaga

At first glance Agnosia seems like a historical thriller. Maybe with some supernatural elements. When you start watching the movie, you think you’re going to watch an industrial espionage thriller. As the movie progresses, you get more and more confused about the movie genre: At some point looks like is going to turn into a horror movie, then it shifts to thriller, then looks more like a love story…

And that is what essentially is. Everything in the movie is a vehicle to narrate a touching, passionate and dark love story. Know that and you’ll enjoy the movie. Watch the movie expecting a thriller, or horror, or whatever and you’ll be disappointed, bored and a little angry, as most Spanish critics (being from Spain I argue a lot defending this movie) seem to be.

Moving on from that, you get an interesting screen writing (in which, again, everything, including the disease that names the movie, is a device for the love story) with a great directing work (although at some points the movie rhythm is a bit irregular), a great setting and photography, and astonishing performances. You’ll find a lot of influences, from Poe to pulp magazines, even some Brian De Palma, which may sound weird, and in fact it is. But for me, works perfectly.

The only reason it doesn’t get a 10 is for the minor flaws mentioned above.Not being a fan or romantic movies, I can’t say it’s the romantic movie of the decade. But it’s the only romantic movie of the decade that has touched me.