Open Your Eyes
Directed by Alejandro Amenábar
- drama
- thriller
- science fiction
The story
Handsome 25-year-old Cesar had it all -- a successful career, expensive cars, a swank bachelor's pad, and an endless string of beautiful and willing women -- until he is thrown into a strange psychological mystery after a car accident scars his face and lands him in prison.
What it’s like
Cool, sun-washed Madrid streets give way to glossy, saturated interiors in this 1997 Spanish thriller, shot with a restless, elegant camera that drifts through nightclubs, apartments and sterile hospital corridors. Its sound is a moody, percussive score that swells into low dread, with long stretches of city hum and silence around it. The mood is slick and unsettled, a sophisticated mix of romance, vanity and creeping disorientation, where reality starts to feel like a rumour. Pacing is controlled, building in layers of reveals rather than action, and the emotional register stays cool and mournful, following a vain, charming man whose world is quietly coming apart and whose confidence gives way to fear and longing. Intensity is moderate: a car crash, a disfiguring injury, some tense confrontations and a brief, sharp burst of violence, with no gore for its own sake and a sexual frankness that is mostly romantic rather than explicit. For viewers who like puzzle-box thrillers with a melancholy, European polish, and who enjoy sitting with a film that lingers on faces and doubt.
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