The Nameless / Los Sin nombre (Spain, 1999)
The Nameless / Los Sin nombre is the feature-length directorial debut of the Spanish horror specialist Jaume Balagueró. And, as a debut film, it is not the worst; but as a horror film, it is also far from the best. It simply is one of those award-winning films that gets great word of mouth but that, when you finally get to see it, you can't help but go "Huh?" 
True, the film may start off in a more than heart-wrenching manner, but once the film kicks into "five years later" everything falls apart despite itself. And at the end of the film, when the storyline achieves an almost conspiracy theory like level – yes, just like the Catholic Church, the U.S. Government, the Elders of Zion and so many others, even the evil work in conspiracies – there is little left for the viewer to do but make raspberries. Especially since the acting is so uniformly monotone but for one or two exceptions – OK, the main characters are indeed all broken souls adrift in a world they no longer can relate to, but do they really have to be such soggy tampons? And why, towards the end of the movie, do the three main characters of the film act like they are all teenage sluts in a dead teenager body-count film and always do exactly that which no one with a brain would do? The viewer can't help but shout "Die, you dumb shit!" (Spoiler!) And they do, but for one…
The tortured and mutilated body of Angela (Judith Tort), the brutally murdered five-year-old daughter of Claudia (Emma Vilarasau) and Marc Gifford (Brendan Price) is found. Five years later, the marriage is over and Claudia is pill-popping and miserable. Suddenly she gets a call from Angela (now Jessica Del Pozo, looking 16 years of age or older), who claims both to be alive and that "they" just wanted Claudia to think she was dead. With the help of Bruno Massera (Karra Elejalde), the retired detective that originally investigated Angela's unsolved "murder," she begins the search for her daughter. A reporter for a supermarket rag gets interested in the case and also begins to investigate, and all slowly – very slowly, in fact – get involved in a whirlpool leading to unavoidable death and disaster…
OK, The Nameless does have great atmosphere and cinematography, providing you have nothing against the umpteenth regurgitation of the stylistic verve David Fincher displayed in Se7en (1995/trailer). Likewise, there is some nifty inter-editing – again and again and again – of shocking images. But there is also a lot of dialogue, some really turgid pacing, some really unbelievable plot developments (a cop giving a disgraced ex-cop buddy a gun?), some abominable overacting during the key final scene that grates terribly against the underacting of the entire film before, and a storyline that goes on and on and on but never arrives, even when it gets to the train station. 
Dunno, but after having seen this turkey and both the extremely disappointing Darkness (2002) and mostly disappointing Fragile (2005), slowly but surely I find it doubtful that the much-hyped [Rec] (2007) is gonna cut the mustard.
The Nameless / Los Sin nombre is the feature-length directorial debut of the Spanish horror specialist Jaume Balagueró. And, as a debut film, it is not the worst; but as a horror film, it is also far from the best. It simply is one of those award-winning films that gets great word of mouth but that, when you finally get to see it, you can't help but go "Huh?" 
True, the film may start off in a more than heart-wrenching manner, but once the film kicks into "five years later" everything falls apart despite itself. And at the end of the film, when the storyline achieves an almost conspiracy theory like level – yes, just like the Catholic Church, the U.S. Government, the Elders of Zion and so many others, even the evil work in conspiracies – there is little left for the viewer to do but make raspberries. Especially since the acting is so uniformly monotone but for one or two exceptions – OK, the main characters are indeed all broken souls adrift in a world they no longer can relate to, but do they really have to be such soggy tampons? And why, towards the end of the movie, do the three main characters of the film act like they are all teenage sluts in a dead teenager body-count film and always do exactly that which no one with a brain would do? The viewer can't help but shout "Die, you dumb shit!" (Spoiler!) And they do, but for one…
The tortured and mutilated body of Angela (Judith Tort), the brutally murdered five-year-old daughter of Claudia (Emma Vilarasau) and Marc Gifford (Brendan Price) is found. Five years later, the marriage is over and Claudia is pill-popping and miserable. Suddenly she gets a call from Angela (now Jessica Del Pozo, looking 16 years of age or older), who claims both to be alive and that "they" just wanted Claudia to think she was dead. With the help of Bruno Massera (Karra Elejalde), the retired detective that originally investigated Angela's unsolved "murder," she begins the search for her daughter. A reporter for a supermarket rag gets interested in the case and also begins to investigate, and all slowly – very slowly, in fact – get involved in a whirlpool leading to unavoidable death and disaster…
OK, The Nameless does have great atmosphere and cinematography, providing you have nothing against the umpteenth regurgitation of the stylistic verve David Fincher displayed in Se7en (1995/trailer). Likewise, there is some nifty inter-editing – again and again and again – of shocking images. But there is also a lot of dialogue, some really turgid pacing, some really unbelievable plot developments (a cop giving a disgraced ex-cop buddy a gun?), some abominable overacting during the key final scene that grates terribly against the underacting of the entire film before, and a storyline that goes on and on and on but never arrives, even when it gets to the train station. 
Dunno, but after having seen this turkey and both the extremely disappointing Darkness (2002) and mostly disappointing Fragile (2005), slowly but surely I find it doubtful that the much-hyped [Rec] (2007) is gonna cut the mustard. 
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