Jeu de rôles

Amid the Sevilla International Exposition , ¨Expo 2000¨ , and the religious festivities of Saint Week , a corpse has appeared in the Maestranza . An aspiring novelist named Simon Cardenas (Eduardo Noriega) pays his invoices by composing crossword puzzles for the Sevilla Gazeta newspaper . Simon shares apartment with a strange young named Sapo (Jordi Molla) . Then , a cryptic recording left on his answering machine asks that he includes a certain word in a future puzzle . Meanwhile , at the Church of Salvacion is spilled gas Sarin , a nervous gas similarly to Tokio underground . Soon Simon is forced into participating in a real-life version of a computer game , a special Rol Game , on the narrow streets of Seville, the stakes being extremely high for the entire city . Later on , another corpse of a priest appears at the Church of the Cautivo . Then the prey Simon/Noriega becomes involved in an intense and increasingly deep chase by means of use of all kinds of methods of communication such as messages , internet and web cams . Simon knows a beautiful journalist (Natalia Verbeke) and both of whom investigate the rare events , as they go to Archive of Indians , get a clue and discover a fantastic enigma .

The film contains thrills , violence , nudism with some strong sexuality , mystery in a dark atmosphere , complemented with moving tension and intrigue . These elements provide the setting for this piece of action/suspense movie , giving it its own special quality and ambient . The atmosphere and perverse intrigue enhance as well as the Holy week religious procession take place . The flick caused great polemic in Spain , for the reason the explosions and bombings to spectacular processions that are considered as sacred . Interesting screenplay by the same filmmaker , Mateo Gil , based on the novel by Juan Bonilla . The film is starred by a Spanish all-star-cast as Noriega , Jordi Molla , Natalia Verbeke and Paz Vega . All of them would make subsequently a fine career as European as Hollywood , playing some international movies . Acceptable Eduardo Noriega as a young who becomes drawn into a spiraling tangle of mystery , danger and confusion . Gorgeous Paz Vega who holds a strong Andalucian accent and Natalia Verbeke who has the strong scenes of nudism . Thrilling and suspenseful soundtrack by musician/director Alejandro Amenabar usual collaborator to Mateo Gil and even appears a cameo as a boy in the bar . Colorful cinematography by Javier Salmones who shows splendidly the streets and monuments of Sevilla such as churches , Giralda , bridge of Alamillos by Calatrava , plus , the Expo 92 . The motion picture was well directed by Mateo Gil . Mateo is a notorious screenwriter , he wrote various films for Amenabar as ¨Agora¨ , ¨Mar Adentro¨ , ¨Abre Los Ojos¨ and ¨Tesis¨ . He only has directed ¨Nobody knows anybody¨ or ¨Nadie Conoce Nadie¨ and recently a Western titled ¨Blackthorn¨ . Rating : Acceptable and passable movie for its intrigue , noisy action and twists and turns .