|
Cell 211
| Released |
15 July 2011 |
| Director |
Daniel Monzón |
Starring
|
Luis Tosar, Alberto Ammann, Antonio Resines, Manuel Morón, Marta Etura, Carlos Bardem |
Writer(s)
|
Jorge Guerricaechevarria, Daniel Monzón |
Producer(s)
|
Alvaro Augustin, Juan Gordon, Borja Pena |
| Origin |
Spain, France |
| Running Time |
113 minutes |
| Genre |
Action, drama |
| Rating |
TBC |
|
|
Spanish Porridge.
This tough prison drama won eight Goyas (the Spanish Oscars) in 2010, including best film and best actor for Luis Tosar. Tosar is a big star in Spain, but would be best known to English-speaking audiences for his role as the villain in Michael Mann’s disappointing Miami Vice reboot. Here he plays Malamadre, the tough leader of a group of prisoners who riot and take over a cell block in a Spanish prison.
This represents spectacular bad luck for Juan (Alberto Ammann). Juan is a new guard who’s only in the prison because he was due to start work the next day. While being shown around by two other guards, he’s hit by some falling masonry and knocked unconscious. The two guards leave him in an empty cell while they go to get help but as this is the moment that the riot starts, they are forced to flee leaving him unconscious in the cell.
The prisoners take control of the block and the now conscious Juan is discovered in the cell by some of the prisoners. Thinking quickly, he hides all evidence of his true identity and pretends to be a prisoner. He’s brought before the fearsome Malamadre who grills him, but he just about gets away with his story. The prison authorities recognise his ingenuity and try to use his presence to broker a solution to the situation. However, an old-school guard, Utrilla (Antonio Resines) is eager to break it up with violent methods.
Meanwhile Malamadre uses three ETA prisoners as hostages in order to gain leverage to have his demands met. He has problems of his own trying to keep control of all the factions in the riot, including the duplicitous Apache (Carlos Bardem, before you Google it, yes, he’s Javier’s brother). Juan has to keep his wits about him in order to get back to his pregnant wife Elena (Marta Etura).
Truth be told, the premise of the story is not that original. What is new is the surprising twists that the story takes. Admittedly many of these twists do stretch credulity but the story moves along so sharply that you don’t have the time to fret about it.
Director Daniel Monzón has made a very tidy piece of work, investing plenty of tension without letting things run away with themselves. The relationship between Juan and Malamadre is played very nicely between Ammann and Tosar. Indeed Tosar gives the type of charismatic performance that could help launch him on the world stage.
Needless to say, an American remake is already in the works with Paul Haggis already attached to write and direct. Okay let’s have some fun here, before they announce the cast. I’ll go for Ryan Gosling for the Juan role, a bald and bearded John Travolta for Malamadre and Michael Ironside as the brutal older prison guard.
It’s no A Prophet, but at a time when the cinemas are full of substandard blockbuster dross, this is a prison flick worth checking out.
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Jim O’Connor |
