Are some people just lucky? Intacto takes this premise and builds an entire story around it. We follow Tomas as he is drawn into a secret underworld where people gamble their own and other peoples lives in the belief they have been, literally, born lucky.
<*dv_0*> The plot is pretty incredulous, however the low key Spanish setting gives a certain dislocated feel to the film and allows you to suspend your disbelief.
The film begins and ends in an isolated casino set in barren scrubland, owned by the mysterious Samuel Berg (played by Max Von Sydow) with whom the film begins and inexorably moves back toward. This is the latest stop on his bizarre career. Few people can claim to be a bona fide great of European cinema (Wild Strawberries, The Seventh Seal, The Virgin Spring or any of half a dozen films with Ingmar Bergman) and to have appeared in a made for TV Kojak movie. His career has even survived two films with Slyvester Stallone (Escape to Victory & Judge Dread) and not many people do that. Just ask Carl Weathers, whose character and career died in Rocky IV.
The 80s saw Max make some pretty questionable choices, the bootleg Bond entry Never Say Never Again, the sword and sorcery romp Conan the Barbarian and the camp space opera Flash Gordon. Films which saw him star alongside Sean Connery, Arnold Schwarzenegger and, er, Blue Peters Peter Duncan.
Despite the hype (does a foreign film ever get a shit review in the Guardian?) this is a minor film. The poster has some quote about the films stylish direction. Well two slow motion shots of windows breaking do not stylish direction make. This film wont disappoint you, it just wont excite or intrigue you that much either.
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