REVIEW: PACO CABEZAS ADIOS
By Elena Anele (*)
ADIOS (2019) is Paco Cabezas (TOKAREV, PENNY DREADFUL) latest movie. It is written by José Rodríguez and Carmen Jimenez with stars such as Mario Casas, Natalia de Molina, Ruth Díaz and many others.
Far from horror genre it can be classified as a kinky action drama movie. It tells the story of a con man – Mario Casas in the role of Juan- with freedom supervised which starts a bloody path of revenge when his little daughter dies in a car crash after the celebration of her First Communion.
Not only it shows the deep emotions this fateful accident brings to the family, friends and the ones responsible of the crime but also does it highlight the hard investigation that is taking place around this and other unlawful act that seems to have been the trigger of all misfortune.
Paco Cabezas is coming back to his origins, to the Spanish cinema tradition of Kinky far away from Hollywood codes but he takes it too seriously. Looking back to these flicks we are missing something essential: the funny moments those antiheroes went through. Apart from an amusing moment involving a drill, there is only deep drama and that makes it too tedious for the genre.
The thing I like most is the role of Ruth Diaz, who plays Eli, a policewoman who fights against sexism and corruption inside the police institution. I think hers is the best character built in the whole movie and her development is the finest in the movie.
Another drawback is the cast. If one believed there couldn’t be the worst diction that in The Platform, it is because you didn’t see this one. There are moments in the film where Mario Casas and Natalia de Molina really needed subtitles. This seems to be a constant in nowadays Spanish cinema, and it is a pity.
ADIOS is available on Amazon Prime Video and on DVD/BR with English subtitles.
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Elena Anele is the woman in charge of SPANISHFEAR.COM, Horror Rises from Spain and Un Fan de Paul Naschy . A literature and cinema researcher, finishing her postgraduate studies with a thesis about the mystic filmmaker José Val del Omar. She has published in different media and books as Fangoria or Hidden Horror. She has also been in charge of several translations including Javier Trujillo’s complete works, La Mano Film Fest, The Man who Saw Frankenstein Cry and many more.
