Dark Impulse

This is a highly suspenseful and cerebral thriller , filled with twists and turns . Eva (Leonor Watling) , a young judge with great future , is totally dedicated her job . Lone Eva usually goes jogging and his only relationship is her sister Marta (Adriana Ugarte) . One day is assigned to investigate a killing , a striptease dancer , as the main suspect is a powerful and wealthy man called Peña (Pedregal) , being detained and imprisoned by Eva . Later on , there appears a witness , the victim's boyfriend , a gigolo named Rocco (Miguel Angel Silvestre) . Eva then becomes involved into a sexual relation to Rocco.

The film contains intense drama , thrills , plot twists and , adding tense sequences especially in its final part in an unexpected denouement . Leonor Watling at her best , she steals the show as a professional judge who falls in love with fateful consequences . The picture relies heavily on the relationship between Judge/Leonor Watling and Gigolo/Miguel Angel Silvestre , containing a lot of sexual scenes among them . In spite of it , the movie results to be better than average , being surprisingly good and compellingly realized . The original as well as entertaining idea about a rigid judge becomes involved into a dark passion is overspread throughout the movie , but not completely satisfactory , including conventional pitfalls . The motion picture is pretty well , although sometimes stagy and packs some turns ; however is entertaining for continuous suspense . Colorful and appropriate cinematography , it is finely photographed by cameraman David Omedes , filmed in Valencia and Madrid . Suspenseful as well as stirring musical score by Arnau Bataller . The motion picture was professionally directed by Mariano Barroso . He has directed various films with similar players and with moderated success such as ¨My soul brother¨ at his best , ¨Extasis¨ with Javier Bardem , ¨Kasbah¨ with Ernest Alterio and Jose Sancho and ¨Ants in mouth¨ with Eduard Fernandez . Rating : 6,5 . The movie will appeal to Leonor Watling and Miguel Angel Silvestre fans . It's an entertaining film but some moments being slow moving .

"Lo mejor de Eva" (Spanish title) is an acceptable thriller that fails on too many levels to be anything more than just a barely entertaining one hour and a half.

Normally quite good Leonor Watling plays Eva, a judge that only centers on her job, and just her job. Investigating the killing of a stripper, she gets to know the stripper's boyfriend, a yes-I-know-I'm-sexy-as- hell Miguel Ángel Silvestre. Will Eva bring justice to the dead woman?

The story is clear enough, but develops quite slowly, and there quite a lot of dead moments. The characters arc's development is quite bad, and some of the decisions the movie takes make not much sense (too many moments of "uh?"). Specially Watling's Eva is a wasted opportunity, in part because Watling plays her as if she was a five-year-old falling in love for the first time. The movie tries to cover the shortcomings with some "extra-alluring-sultry" situations that are just an excuse to get the character's clothes out of the way, and that are lame. Barroso's directing doesn't seem to go anyway and it just seems focused on following the "Thriller-for-dummies" textbook. Also the movie fails in clearly differentiating between sexy and lurid, and sexist, falling closer to the second category.

All in all, a not very good thriller, with average acting, direction and plot.

This is one of the best Spanish movies I have seen for ages. The script is very good as well as the acting. It depicts the flaws of the judicial system and how the power can affect the progress of a case. No matter how hard you try to get the justice you need or -in other words- you deserve, there are always those who override the rules by the money they possess or the power they have, thanks to the uncountable amount of money in their bank accounts. The movie proceeds very smoothly and the ending is very well crafted. Despite some errors in the script, the whole movie is very gripping. It is worth seeing more than once. Highly recommended.