That world-famous (and now seeming to exist just about everywhere
in the world) streaming site
Netflix has gifted us with lots of worthwhile movies to view, including more and more of which the company has itself distributed. Every so often, though, a real clunker appears in the mix, one that's dumb enough to make a warning worthwhile. Such a film is the new
WHEN ANGELS SLEEP, written and directed by
Gonzalo Bendala.
The original Spanish poster for the movie, shown below, asks the question:
Cuando los angeles duermen, quien nos protege? which translates,
TrustMovies believes, to
When angels sleep, who protects us? Here's a better and more useful question the movie-maker might have asked:
When every decision made by every character in your film is completely stupid, how can your audience be expected to give a shit?
By the end of this 91-minute would-be dramatic thriller, I found myself talking back aloud to the screen so often, usually saying "For god's sake, don't do
that!" that I had pretty much gone hoarse. This is particularly too bad because the film's cast deserves much better.
Lead actor
Julián Villagrán (shown below, of
Extraterrestrial) plays one of the heads of a Spanish insurance company who is trying to get home in time for his young daughter's birthday party. He is several hours' drive away, however, and so he makes just about every dumb decision possible in order -- or so it begins to appear --
not to get there.
Then we're introduced to a teenage girl who apparently has parent problems. She hates 'em, but from what we're allowed to see, they're merely typically clueless-about-teens, while she seems angry/ugly enough for hospitalization. As played by
Ester Expósito (shown at top and below, of the recent and much better Netflix series,
Elite), the young lady quickly tries your patience to the point where you're dismayed to realize that you'd be more than happy to see her dead.
And then we have our anti-hero's wife (
Marian Álvarez, below), who -- in accepting her hubby's nonsensical excuses while also accepting the advances of next-door neighbor who's helping with that birthday party in lieu of dad -- seems to alternate between dumb and dumber. And if you imagine that the supporting characters are any better, give it up. They're not only just as dumb -- but a whole lot nastier.
Except the police. They're stupider than everyone else put together. Please: Tell me that Spain's cops, including the one in charge of the others here, are smarter than
this?! Somebody? Anybody? Guess not. The really weird thing about this movie is that its ending is simply terrific. Or would be, if what preceded it had a trace of actual truth and did not seem instead to have been manipulated within an inch of its life.
This denouement could hardly be darker -- or more directly contradicting one's hopeful idea of any justice existing in our world. There's zero to be found here, which is a difficult, but sometimes salutary thing to accept. Unfortunately, instead of giving us reason/evidence to have to deal with this thesis, we get an uber crappy movie to precede this wonderfully dank and existential ending, one that is worthy, yes, of
Beckett and/or
Céline.
Streaming now via
Netflix,
When Angels Sleep, won't put you to sleep. But it will probably make you plenty angry -- and for more bad reasons than good ones.
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