Solemplex To me, this movie is perfection.

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Borserie it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Turin_Horse Benito Zambrano's Solas offers us a collection of stereotypes which are of little credibility and make of this film a hard and boring view. It is basically the account of a few weeks in the lives of some personages, in the particular circumstance that the father of a family is in hospital and his wife has to move to the city to stay with him. No hint of sensitivity, or even humanity, is to be found in the ogre- like personage of the father, of whom we know through patches of conversation that is alcoholic (a vice inherited by his daughter), violent, family abuser and wasteful. To this father's attitude, the wife and the daughter adopt completely opposite attitudes; totally submissive the wife, whom might well have been depicted with an aura of holiness around her head; rebel and contemptuous towards her father the daughter, who hates him undisguisedly. Social groups are portrayed under fixed stereotypes too: all affluent people are egoist, thoughtless towards others and bad; all poor people have a good heart, but life circumstances may make them behave not so honestly; all men are thoughtless, brute, women chasers, football lovers and sex-obsessed, but for one of the characters of the film, a neighbor which seems to share with the wife the gift of holiness; and all women are... well, they are a bit more fleshed out in the film and considered as individuals, rather than as a bulk indistinguishable from one another.I cannot recommend watching this film to anybody, but maybe for those whom may feel reassured in their convictions about human stereotypes in case they are coincident with those depicted in the film. Only one scene seemed to me of cinematographic value: when the daughter is watching through a passing train a bag lady carrying her trolley; as the different carriages pass by we can see in very short flashes the increasing expression of sorrow, desperation and realization of the bag lady desperate condition. Ana Fernández is fine in her role as the daughter.

writers_reign I stumbled on this DVD in my local library having never heard of the film itself or anyone connected with it either in front of or behind the camera. That's as good a definition of 'serendipity' as any. Although there are perhaps a dozen players it's essentially a three-hander, four if we stretch a point and include Paco De Osca's husband/father from hell who indirectly generates most of what happens with the other three, the other three being Maria (Ana Fernandez) a 35 year-old country girl long fled to the city as soon as she was old enough to escape her abusive drunken father and with little or no formal education is obliged to take a succession of menial cleaning jobs and provide a sex-object for macho Spanish males. As the story begins De Osca has just been admitted to hospital in the city and his down-trodden wife (Maria Galiana) has accompanied him and is reluctantly put up by Maria for the duration. The third member of this morose little group is widower Vecino (Carlos Alvarez-Novoa) who lives in the same apartment building as Maria and quickly attaches himself to her mother. For the mother it is a revelation to meet a man who is not only not an animal but also has finer feelings but she has become habituated to her role as doormat and when her husband is released from hospital she returns with him to their village leaving us with the impression that should her husband die she will return and take up with Vecino, who, in the wake of the mother's departure, persuades Maria not to abort the child she is carrying (the father has no interest in a permanent relationship and offers to underwrite an abortion) and promises to act as a grandfather. This is a study of three lost souls and despite the downbeat theme it is actually uplifting. The acting throughout is more than competent, that of the three principals brilliant. 9/10

MultiMediaHouse A very touching movie. During the movie you almost start wondering if there are only sad people around. But even the saddest ones (and they now, because they have had a fight about who the saddest one was) can shift to a better life.

madshy If you where run over by the Miramax foreign film juggernaut, then you missed this brilliant gem tucked away in one those twenty seats cinema theater.A film is very much like a painting, meant to be seen not discussed or explained. So let us just leave it at 'see it'.Benito Zambrano's talent on the other hand merits more than a discussion. A sensitive director and a poignant writer. In many ways 'Solas' reminded me of another gem in the dust 'Heavy'.Benito managed to keep the movie so simple, that it hurts. His flare for observing and then relaying in his film the raw human angst, is inspiring.The actors for there part, rose to the greatness of the moment.BZ makes us cling to hope by our finger nails while steadily adding to our feet the weight of reality. But then, isn't that life!To look for hope in 'Solas' is to look for simplicity in 'Guernica'. It's there, you just need to see it.And like all good things in life this one is elusive too. No video or a DVD release yet.Once again, it lives up to it's name.