Stometer Save your money for something good and enjoyable

SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

CommentsXp Best movie ever!

Mandeep Tyson The acting in this movie is really good.

EVOL666 I picked EL MAR up after having seen Villaronga's IN A GLASS CAGE, which I enjoyed very much. I purposely didn't read anything about this film as I try to avoid "spoilers" anymore so as not to bias my opinion of the film. In this case, a little research may have been in order...The film begins with three young boys and a young girl who witness/participate in the murder of another young child. The child that actually committed the murder then commits suicide. Cut to 10 or so years later, and the two remaining boys unknowingly meet up again at a tuberculosis sanatorium. The young girl is also there as well, as a nun who helps the ailing "guests". Here we learn more of the kid's backgrounds and witness their lives amidst the backdrop of death that constantly surrounds the sanatorium.EL MAR is a strong and well made film. Shot beautifully, strong acting, and a somewhat engaging storyline. But it also tended to be dull at points. I also had no real feelings for any of the characters involved as the film didn't seem to dig too deep into their motivations for some of their more "extreme" actions. It certainly is touched-on, but not really explained deeply - thus making it hard (for me at least) to care too much about the outcomes of the characters. There is also a very strong homosexual theme throughout the film - so anyone offended by such material should probably leave this one alone. I am in no way prejudiced against gay people, but I personally can live without watching graphic homosexual scenes on film (including a particularly "rough" rape scene). Overall, I will say that EL MAR is a very "good" film - but it wasn't the type of thing that I would normally watch. 6/10

willev1 Only the severely deluded will pretend that this film is great art or psychologically penetrating (although there is quite a bit of other penetration going on throughout). It is pure Spanish "Grand Guignol," beautifully photographed, strung out before us like a string of carefully spaced horror-cameo happenings. The director found a novel that contained all this excrement and he really went ape over the possibilities of cramming it all into one movie. The first sequence involves five young children who witness a guerrilla-style execution during the Spanish Civil War, but only three of them survive the experience. Then the film jumps forward bout 15 years, and those 3 survivors JUST HAPPEN to find themselves in the same TB sanatorium. The 2 men are patients and interact with other supposed patients, all of whom look incredibly buff and healthy.The shenanigans in the sanatorium have almost nothing to do with the events pictured earlier, but that is not surprising since nothing that happens in this movie has much relation to character or to reality. The gay sub-plots come strictly out of the blue, and aside from some nattering psycho-babble, there is nothing here relating to "the sea."Having said all that, go ahead and enjoy the movie! It is almost a parody of Spanish melodrama, smartly staged by a wannabe Almodovar.

BPaiva Film is designed to affect the audience and this film left me speechless. Gorgeously photographed and well acted with dialog that approaches poetry the film involves lust, hate, murder, rape, theft and deception. It weaves an intense web that left me unable to take my eyes off the screen until the closing credits. The story is sweeping. It takes the audience from the atrocities of the Spanish Civil War to the human wreckage left behind. Roger Casamajor and Bruno Bertanzoni are two young actors who command the screen. Supporting players are excellently cast and lend a real sense of authenticity. Sets, lighting, scenery and cinematography are wonderful. I absolutely love the photography.

Keith F. Hatcher This is a dark movie, indeed; sinister in its telling and setting; maccabre in its doing and making; chilling from beginning to end. How much or how well or how closely this film reflects Balearic revengefulness during the Spanish Civil War or the consequent aftermath in the forties, may be exaggerated or a little doubtful; that such vengeousness existed should not be doubted, not only on Mallorca, but in other parts of Spain. However, rather than revenge or other forms of hatred, we should bear in mind that three young children witnessed firing squads and even their own friends killing each other and that this horrible secret would stay with them right to the bitter end.A harsh, crude story told with a relentless but highly controlled sledge-hammer. The psychological inferences in the development of character antagonisms between the main actors is an appalling affront to the viewers sensibilities, with only the nun (Antónia Torrens) lending that slightly angelical relief that might suggest some connection with a more stable reality of 'normal' human behaviour. But it is Ramallo (Roger Casamajor) and Manuel (Bruno Bergonzini) who are the centre-piece of the unmitigatingly fatidic outcome, as they journey through tense and traumatic developments, including a homosexual love-making scene that took two months of preparation (RTVE 24th May, 2002: ensuing debate on the film with the director, producer and the two leading male actors).Villaronga's direction is taught and studied, meticulous, apparently aware that the treatment of the subject would either make a film or something absolutely unstomachable. He seems to feel that dealing with a book which leads into a dejected black abysm would only survive on screen so long as he had iron-fisted control over each minute detail in each scene. In this we can say he just about succeeded. But I would not choose to see this film again, as I would with '99.9' (qv).As well as Casamajor's and Bergonzini's decidedly determined efforts in playing their parts, notable in some of the incredibly delicate and difficult scenes, Simón Andreu as Alcántara was up to the mark. Even from the younger children in the earlier parts of the film, we can see how everyone was bent on making Villaronga's project work.If it was not for the music, things might have gone off course: Javier Navarrete's score underlines the moody sombre texturising of the story-line, as those tragically eloquent deep bass sweeps from the Czech orchestra admirably serve as if they were another physical character in the telling of these almost traumatic events in this almost traumatic film.The participation of Ángela Molina did not serve for much, and María del Mar Bonet's appearance only suggested that she has to appear in anything truly Balearic. However, she should be remembered as an important pioneer of Mediterranean folk songs, as she has made numerous records of songs from the Balearic Islands, Tunis and even Turkey and which stand among my favourites in my collection.A difficult film to make; a difficult film to watch; this is especially the case for non-Spanish viewers who may not have too much idea of the atrocities and the resulting distrustful antipathy that surged in human souls sixty-odd years ago in this country in general, and, in this case in Mallorca specifically. Not recommended for the squeamish; not even recommended for those accustomed to the barbariousness of such 'heroes' in 'violent' films perpetrated by Seagal, Willis, Schwarzenegger and such ilk, as 'El Mar' has absolutely nothing to do with such silly kids' stuff: this film IS violent on the senses.Added May 2007: IMDb voters give 7,5 which is just about right: and I abhore gratuitous violence in other more frivolous productions.