Spanish director Oriol Paul's new film "The Innocent" has disappointed some fans.
Domestic fans' impression of him is still in "The Invisible Guest". As a netizen summed up, "What you think you think is what you think", in this story, the technique of reversal is used to the extreme by Oriol - near the end of the film, Virginia with white hair faces the audience, slowing down Slowly tearing off a mask, the so-called lawyer turned out to be just to reveal the truth of the incident. Her real identity was the mother of the victim.
The film was first released in China in 2017. Four years later, I have forgotten other plots of the film, but I still remember this scene and even the feeling when I saw it. It's like a person blowing up a balloon. The front has been blowing hard and blowing, and it has blown to the expected size, but suddenly, the air in the balloon is filled all at once, and the whole thing bursts. OK, it's time to relax. Who can watch this scene without exclaiming "the stroke of the gods"?
Similar magic strokes abound in "The Invisible Guest", and therefore, "reversed setting" has become the biggest expectation of many movie fans for Oriol's works, and even a measure of the quality of the work. In the past two years, Oriol's other work "Mirage" was released in China, and there is a view that, compared with "Invisible Guest", the truth is wrapped in multiple illusions, and the more rigorous logical narrative "Mirage". "Less the pleasure of reversing, reversing, and re-reversing.
By the time of "The Most Innocent", many people still look forward to the continuous reversal of the plot, thinking that the male protagonist Matt will save a big picture like a white-haired woman. As a result, after watching the whole drama, Matt is not a big boss behind the scenes, he is a complete unlucky person, the only "innocent".
The Innocence begins with two storylines. Matt was jailed for four years for the manslaughter of another hapless boy, Danny, at a party many years ago. After being released from prison, he meets Olivia, who had a one-night stand before, and the two fall in love and get married. Strangely, Matt received a video from Olivia's mobile phone. In the video, Olivia was scantily clad with a naked and strange man. What is Olivia's relationship with a strange man? Matt's mind kept flashing back to the image of the manslaughter of Danny, is there any other possibility for Danny's death?
On the other hand, on the surface it is a completely unrelated story. When nun Maria falls to her death in a convent, policewoman Lorina takes over the case. Various details show that Maria's death is unusual, the breasts filled with prostheses, the non-abstinence routine, the torn photo and the "forgiveness" on the back... At the end of the second episode, Lorina found the last call to Maria The master's house, the door opened, and Matt came out of the room. It is no exaggeration to say that the director's point card is too good, and the two story lines are magically linked together.
But unfortunately, the first two episodes are the highlight of the whole show. Later, with the disclosure of Maria and Olivia's past identities (strippers), the truth of the incident will be revealed, and all speculations have been verified one by one. , there is nothing to reverse.
Of course, it doesn't mean that only reversal, reversal, and reversal of the plot are commendable, but when the male protagonist is indeed a "white lotus" and basically everyone's death has nothing to do with him , those scenes added to the male protagonist have become rambles and tricks, and it is not an exaggeration to call him a "tool man". Otherwise, how to explain the whole drama, we can feel the paranoia of the policewoman Lorina, the growth of Olivia, and the courage of Maria... But for the absolute hero, we can't tell the characteristics of his characters.
At the end of the episode, there was finally one person who was killed by Matt, without wasting the foreshadowing in the early stage. But even with the coldest eyes, Matt is an innocent person. He is being sought by other prisoners. Either this person dies or Matt dies. Justifiable defense is helpless. This plot is equally irritating: the prisoner was killed by Matt. Obviously, he didn't tell the truth to his wife, but the reason for the killing stayed at a logical and reasonable level, which could not stand too much aftertaste and chewing. It is hard to make up for it; if the prisoner was not killed by Matt, the grass snake and gray line in the early stage became a myth again.
Audiences love suspense dramas, and one of the most important pleasures is participating in the story. Everyone can observe all the details of the scene like Sherlock Holmes and guess the answer from the details that may be useless. If the clues are too useless or too useful, there will be problems—too useless, and they become convoluted, tedious, and pretentious; too useful, and when the audience guesses right, those details inevitably appear stereotyped, and the fun of reasoning is greatly reduced.
After stripping away the motives and behaviors of the male protagonist, "The Best of Innocence" reveals the above-mentioned shortcomings. The details are too obvious, which makes the story line too smooth. In the later stage, the audience will feel more and more boring. For example, the ring on client No. 27's hand and the action of breaking hands, Olivia's phone call that couldn't get through, the teacup left by Olivia's former sister Kimi on the table... The director repeatedly used close-up shots to make the audience focus on In these details, a drama of "men are evil, women unite" is completed.
In fact, compared to the original Harlan Cobain's novel of the same name, "The Innocence" has made a lot of adaptations in the story line. In the original book, Danny's father didn't do much show, neither killing the two people who forced the nun to death and framing it to Matt, nor hiring prisoners to kill Matt in prison. In other words, the plot of Matt's "Killing in Prison" is the drama version of "creating something out of nothing".
Why did the director make such an adaptation? As you can guess, he wanted to tell a story similar to Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment. He made Matt commit the unforgivable thing, Danny's father played the role of the punisher, punishing Matt's "impulsivity" and "anger" crimes; let Danny's mother play the role of the Virgin, calling Matt with a doting face For "Danny" and "son", let the protagonist get redemption. This is obviously a Western Christian humanitarian thought. Although people in the world are sinful, they can be saved if they have love.
What is even more interesting is that in "Crime and Punishment", the protagonist finally surrenders himself under the inspiration of the prostitute Sonia's "love". In "The Most Innocent", the character name of Danny's mother is also called "Sonia", and Matt's wife Olivia used to be a stripper with a disorderly life, and the nature of the work is similar to that of the prostitute in the book. But it is because of the love of Danny's mother and wife that Matt walks out of the past and regains his life.
From an emotional point of view, director Oriol's adaptation is quite reasonable, and the socialist reasoning itself pays more attention to the depiction and analysis of human nature. Therefore, it seems that we should not be too strict with reversal techniques and reasoning techniques.
But the biggest problem is not "there is a reversal or not" and "how is the reversal design", but in "Crime and Punishment", we can feel the self-mental torture of the protagonist after the murder. The biggest punishment; "Innocent Sin" puts the punishment on others, which is more conducive to the presentation of film and television, but it is greatly reduced in Matt's own presentation. His inner torment, repentance, pain, and torment have all been taken away in one stroke. Arousing the empathy of the audience will not be able to support the director's grand proposition.
This result is particularly regrettable. "The Most Innocent" could have done better, either focusing on the original sin of human nature, giving the audience the possibility to examine and think, or playing suspenseful techniques to fully stimulate the audience's five senses. Choose any of them and you'll be better off than you are now.
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