The Invisible Guest — keep your story straight

Spoiler-free review.

The Invisible Guest is easy to get pulled into. A businessman accused of murder has limited time to prepare his defence with a lawyer, and the conversation quickly becomes a contest over what happened and what can be made to sound convincing.

Oriol Paulo keeps the story moving without letting scenes settle. A detail gets questioned, an account gets reconsidered, and suddenly you're weighing things differently. I liked the active feeling of listening rather than waiting for the next event.

Mario Casas and Ana Wagener give the central exchanges a useful imbalance. His explanations and her insistence on testing them create tension even when the film is largely dealing in words. The dialogue is doing a lot of plot work, but the pressure between the performers keeps it from feeling like a summary.

The film is very structured, and sometimes I felt the writing was pushing for another twist instead of letting people act naturally. The characters aren't always as interesting as the story they're caught in. Still, the pacing makes it easy to follow along.

8/10. A fun, tightly written thriller with plenty of twists. The less you know about the details going in, the more enjoyable the questioning will be.

Directed by Oriol Paulo · 2016 · Spanish. Film details · Poster source. Artwork © its respective rights holders.

— Desly