Counter Pace (2016)

Directed by: Oriol Paulo | 106 minutes | crime | Actors: Mario Casas, Ana Wagener, Jose Coronado, Bárbara Lennie, Francesc Orella, Paco Tous, David Selvas, Iñigo Gastesi, San Yélamos, Manel Dueso, Blanca Martínez

A man wakes up on the floor of a hotel room, somewhere in the Spanish Pyrenees. The man is Adrián Doria, a wealthy businessman from Barcelona. His former mistress Laura lies a short distance away, dead in a pool of blood. Not much later, when the police storm into the hotel room, Adrián understands that he is the only suspect in the murder. To avoid a certain conviction, Adrián’s lawyer sends the well-known legal pit bull Virginia Goodman to him. Together they have to find out what happened in that hotel room and who is to blame for what.

In the Spanish thriller ‘Contratiempo’ we listen in on the conversations between Goodman and Adrián, but above all we look at flashbacks of what happened according to Adrian. In doing so, he shows himself to be an unreliable narrator, so that we sometimes see the flashback again, but this time with different or additional details. In the end, everything revolves around an event that took place three months before Laura’s murder. An unfortunate event that sets off an unfortunate chain reaction.

‘Contratiempo’ is a thriller that is as modest as it is high-quality. It’s not the kind of thriller that gives you headaches from thinking about it, but it’s also not the kind where you realize after five minutes what’s going on. We receive information in an extremely dosed manner, whereby we increasingly suspect what is going on, but just not completely. The story is complex, but by keeping the right pace and repeating something once in a while, the viewer never has to worry about getting lost.

Also in terms of characters ‘Contratiempo’ has found the perfect balance. We don’t see any caricature villains here, but we don’t see angels either. These are ordinary people who are confronted with things that threaten their daily lives. How far would such a normal person go to protect himself and his loved ones?

All this comes to us in atmospheric images, supported by a score that increases the tension but never becomes intrusive. The acting is fine, with especially strong Bárbara Lennie as the vulnerable Laura. And then there’s that exciting story. This makes ‘Contratiempo’ an intelligent, stylish thriller that combines craftsmanship and is fascinating from start to finish. It yielded the film (so far) three remakes.