‘The Redemption’ review: Daniel Guzman, Luis Tosar star in Madrid-set social drama

Dir/scr: Daniel Guzman. Spain/Romania. 2024. 115mins

An engrossing tackle a small-time criminal who finds himself out of his depth as he tries to forestall his grandmother from eviction, Daniel Guzman’s third function follows his first two – Nothing In Return (2015) and Monkey Enterprise (2022) – in being character-driven, warm-hearted and socially dedicated within the good, old style method. New listed below are some noisy thriller components: generally they threaten to tug the challenge out of practice however, courtesy of Guzman’s intense, downbeat central efficiency because the movie’s flawed anti-hero, that by no means occurs. The Redemption, which not too long ago opened Malaga Movie Competition, is at all times worthy, however by no means boring.

At all times worthy, however by no means boring

Unemployed forty-something Lucas (Guzman) lives with, and cares for, his grandmother Antonia (octogenarian Rosario Garcia, making her debut). Cash is tight and, on a hospital go to, Lucas steals and resells a defibrillator. Shortly picked up, arrested and jailed, his solely concern is for Antonia, who can’t be left alone: after a little bit of entertaining enterprise involving self-harm and a pleasant nurse, Mara (Susana Abaitua), Lucas escapes from the hospital.

Two key occasions mark Lucas’s passage via a plotline which is well-handled however generally feels too packed for its personal good. One is {that a} letter arrives threatening to evict Antonia from their dwelling except she repays her massive excellent mortgage. (Such evictions have been a hot-button challenge in Madrid over current years, as buildings are repurposed for nakedly business ends.) 

The opposite is that an 11-year-old boy has died within the hospital as a result of apparently the defibrillator Lucas has stolen was the one one obtainable – a maybe implausible element in a script that so clearly prides itself on its faithfulness to lived expertise. Different such credibility flaws threaten to interrupt via because the busy plotline presses relentlessly and breathlessly on.

On the run, in want of loads of money and burdened with guilt, Lucas takes on work as a driver for a prison gang, with Luis Tosar delivering his normal flip because the charismatic gang chief. “If the automobile doesn’t attain its vacation spot or if the trunk is opened for any cause,” he warns Lucas in a single memorable scene, “you’ll have an issue with no answer.” And as if he didn’t have already got sufficient issues with out options, Lucas decides, for causes that he’s unclear about himself, that he should additionally hunt down Gabriela (Itziar Ituño), the mom of the lifeless boy: the scenes between them are inevitably supercharged.

The movie takes us via a satisfying vary of moods and the script does properly to marshal the sheer amount of occasions going down, however there’s at all times the troubling sense that issues are about to spill over into the absurd. Because the emotional centre, Guzman ties issues down because the crumpled, resigned and engagingly non-charismatic Lucas, bringing actual depth to the staple determine of the golden-hearted criminal.

His grandmother, and the threatened dwelling he shares along with her, are the one constructive components in Lucas’ in any other case depressing existence, and his exchanges with Antonia – performed with compelling naturalness by Garcia, who delivers some winningly comedian one-liners – are the quietest and strongest scenes, crucially offering strong emotional justification for the insane, self-destructive lengths that Lucas goes to. In any case, he’s on the horns of a dilemma of tragic proportions: in his makes an attempt to protect his family, he has destroyed the lifetime of another person’s.

From its opening drone pictures, The Redemption is a terrific homage to the barrios of Madrid – the cobbled streets, the native bars, the dingy working-class interiors, and the heartless establishments. (In usually Spanish style, one of many best obstacles Lucas faces is getting maintain of Antonia’s account particulars so he can truly pay the cash into the financial institution.) Ibon Antunano’s camerawork infuses the temper with an appropriately stifling and deadening air. Richard Skelton’s intentionally repetitive and easy minimalistic string rating provides poignancy however is typically overused.