Intacto

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Buy This Item Intacto by Lions Gate  Available from Amazon  $9.98  on 11-14-2008     This sleek, stylish thriller suggests that luck is a quality we possess, like strength or intelligence, but the more fortunate among us can steal the luck of those less charmed. When a bank robber named Tomas is the only survivor of a plane wreck, the luckless Federico thinks he's found the man who can defeat the Jew--the luckiest man alive, a Holocaust survivor who sits at the apex of a weird, underground world of increasingly dangerous gambles. But on their trail is a police detective named Sara who's pretty lucky herself--and as she learns more about how luck works, she begins to suspect she survived a car crash because she stole the luck of her husband and child, both of whom died. The stealthy story is packed with eerie visuals and charismatic performances, including Max von Sydow (truly one of the greatest actors alive) as the Jew. <I>--Bret Fetzer</I> Reader Reviews Intacto (Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, 2001) Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (28 Weeks Later...) began his feature film career with Intacto, an intriguing meditation on the nature of luck that wouldn't be out of place on your shelf beside El Laberinto del Fauno. While Fresnadillo stays tied much more rightly to the real world than Guillermo del Toro did in 2006's best film, the sense of wonder that pervades del Toro's masterpiece can be found here in equal amounts. Fresnadillo's script, co-written with Andres Koppel, centers on Federico (Eusebio Poncela), who begins the film in the inner circle of the unnaturally lucky. He is employed as a cooler at a casino, but he works in a different way than most: by touching someone, he is capable of stealing that person's store of luck and adding it to his own. When he finds himself wanting to leave the job, he finds he's not allowed to leave with his stored luck; Samuel (Max von Sydow), the man behind all this, steals Federico's luck before allowing him to leave. Federico develops an obsession for finding others like him, training them, and overthrowing Samuel. To this end, he finds Tomas (Leonardo Sbaraglia), the lone survivor of a plane crash. Unfortunately, Tomas is a bank robber, so the law, in the form of Sara (Monica Lopez), is after him. Federico introduces Tomas to the world of "fluid luck", for lack of a better term, and the two of them, with Sara always in pursuit, get closer and closer to Federico's goal and the inevitable meeting with Samuel. Despite the fact that this is a gritty, understated film-- it would not be outside the realm of validity to call it an urban fantasy-- Fresnadillo does not limit the scope of his vision to the concrete landscapes around him. This is a remarkably free-feeling film; I can't think of any other way to describe it. (This is depicted, specifically, in the casino, which is in a secluded place in the desert, well away from the rest of civilization.) The relentless realism with which it is filmed combines with the ludicrous premise to create a feeling that anything is possible, and that's what keeps the viewer riveted, even more so than the gloomy cinematography, the finely-tuned performances, or the truly original plot. An excellent piece of work all around. ****

Intacto Available from Amazon Price: $9.98 Updated on 11-14-2008.

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