This movie is a good example of why I try to watch foreign language films in their original tongue, with subtitles. Because the DVD I have only comes with the dubbed version, and good lord it is awful. It's all flat, uninteresting and largely indistinguishable voices, uttering their lines without any sign of engagement or awareness of what's occurring on screen.
The film begins with with two cops discussing a terrible crime, in the kind of tones in which you would comment on the weather. Actually, that's not true. People sometimes care about the weather.
Anyway, the victim of the crime is a young girl. Her teeth, fingers and other identifying marks have been destroyed. However, a bracelet found near the body, and the fact that she has one leg shorter than the other, seem to identify her. Because the cops in this movie are stupid as well as disinterested. They call the supposed parents of the supposed child, who identify the bracelet as belonging to their child. Case closed!
Five years later, the mother of the 'dead' girl gets a call from her supposedly deceased child. You're shocked, I'm sure. This leads her to begin a long and convoluted investigation, though quite why it's so long I'm not sure, because someone keeps hand feeding her clues. Not that there is anything suspicious or weird about that. No way.
Finally after a lot of dreadfully delivered conversation, the movie limps to an end. It made no sense, but I frankly didn't care by then.
This film won several awards on release, so I can only assume that it's more engaging in the original Spanish. At least the actors probably sound awake in that version.
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