Spanish cinema has shown in recent years that it knows how to move quite well within the genre of thrillerWell, surely no lover of the seventh art in our country has trouble remembering titles as estimable as ‘Cell 211’, ‘The minimum island’, ‘The unknown’, ‘Late for anger’, ‘Bajocero’ or ‘As Beasts’. In addition, all of them were successes to a greater or lesser extent, so it is logical that the film industry in our country continues to bet on them.
The next to arrive will be ‘Siege’, a new job behind the scenes of Miguel Angel Vivas. Its arrival in theaters is scheduled for this Friday, May 4, so it will have to compete directly with ‘Guardians of the Galaxy 3’, which will surely limit its scope. And it will also be deserved, since the Marvel film is better than the title at hand, which shines when it focuses on its nature as a thriller but is weak when it enhances its component of social criticism.
An unfortunate mix
All this is already present in the prologue, where it can be said that there are several starts. On the one hand, an extensive sequence that shows the agony of an old man faced with the need to evacuate his house and be condemned to misery, but also a series of additional elements that seek to give extra meaning to everything we will see later. already here it is perceived a strong disconnect between the two aspects, with one of them exhibiting an enviable strength, mainly due to Vivas’ directing work, and the other causing a certain sensation of disbelief.
However, it is later that the true story of ‘Siege’ begins with an eviction that becomes extremely complicated. There the film has two great points of support. On the one hand, Vivas recovers that excellent handling of the sequence shots that he already exhibited at the time in the essential ‘Kidnapped’, thus managing to raise even more the tension of the different situations that the character of Natalia Molina. Her interpretation is the other bastion of ‘Siege’.
It is true that the drawing of the character’s motivations from the script can be improved, since some details are not fully outlined -some will call it contradictions but others will be less kind about it- and end up affecting its dramatic scope, but the actress manages to overcome to that limitation and that his Dani works well as the dramatic axis of the show and that the energy on that side never falters. He helps thisThe indisputable delivery of Natalia de Molina in a role that requires great physical dedication, where you can’t fault her.
That does not mean that the film suffers certain credibility issues that may end up being insurmountable for some viewers. This is especially noticeable when everything related to illegal immigrants gains importance, because it is as if ‘Siege’ insisted on mixing water with oil, to the point that its final stretch deflates and I simply wanted it to end as soon as possible to that the negative did not end up prevailing over the virtues that the film exhibits.
However, focusing only on defects in your attempts to give a social reading to the film would be a mistake, because in the end what is really important is whether you believe or not certain licenses that are taken. For example, there is a great scene full of tension in which a group of characters try to get information out of someone, but there is a detail in it that can lead you to simply not believe anything and that, at the very least, tarnishes which is still one of the high points of the function.
You want it not, that tarnishes what could have been a suffocating experience for the viewer and also distances it from the level exhibited not so long ago by ‘Riot Control’, the closest thing there would be in recent Spanish fiction to ‘Siege’. However, the film in question wants to be even more ambitious than the Movistar+ series and integrate a discourse related to illegal immigration that instead of adding to it, ends up subtracting from the perhaps more obvious but much more powerful plot of police corruption.
In fact, what ends up causing this is that the frantic pace that ‘Siege’ shows off during various sections of the film is diluted. It is true that it gives rise to scenes in which the tension in the air is also cut -Dani’s meeting with the big bosses in the shadow of the building-, but they feel like a somewhat out of place addition, as if it were a way of extend the descent into hell of the protagonist instead of a natural evolution of the story. Her intentions are laudable, but it ends up being a drag.
So is it worth watching or not?
‘Asedio’ has left me with mixed feelings, since the direction of Miguel Ángel Vivas is very strong and the interpretation of Natalia de Molina is most convincing, but it gives me the feeling that the script for martha medina it fails to integrate very well the elements that distinguish it from being a thriller to use. And the truth is that the idea remains that it would have been much better “settling” for that. Of course, I am also clear that its immersive component can lead to what are important drawbacks for me, lacking relevance for others.
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