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| 7 años - A small budget well paced thriller. |
Written by: Jose Cabeza and Julia Fontana (written by), Cristian Continue and Roger Gual (additional writing)
Directed by: Roger Gual
Starring: Juana Acosta, Alex Brendemühl, Paco León, Manuel Morón, Juan Pablo Raba
Rated: --/R
Plot
Four friends under IRS investigation must decide which one of them goes to jail to protect the other three.
Verdict
One room thriller movies are difficult to execute. This does a nice job, with the impartial mediator being a nice detail that provides credibility. Personal connections round out the story, and the script has each character make logical arguments. With a one room setting, the movie is a bit underwhelming, but the nuanced ending was a great conclusion.
It depends.
Review
The title, 7 años, translates to 7 years. That is how much jail time one of the four will face. The title card is well placed to answer that question.
Any movie that takes place in a single room brings me to 12 Angry Men (1957), few movies can do so much with just one setting, and that is the pinnacle. While 7 años isn't that good, it's a solid low budget movie.
Marcel, Carlos, Luis, and Vero are business associates and founders. We don't know what their business is, but it doesn't matter. The company has been caught cheating the IRS, but if only one of them admits to it, the other three can claim ignorance and avoid punishment. None of them want to volunteer for jail time, so they've created a mediation department in the company and hired a mediator to help them.
We are like the lawyer, completely ignorant, so it works well to have him ask these basic questions and avoid a character telling his associates what they should already know. One of them getting caught saves the other three and the company. This is a twist on the prisoner's dilemma, where what is in the groups best interest isn't in the best interest of the individual.
The lawyer is a smart character as he should be. He tells them he is not going to decide for them, he will merely help them reach a decision. He provides a framework for the characters to argue not only why it shouldn't be them, but why someone else is best suited. It's a smart script.
This combines the impending doom of an arrest in a few days with an impossible decision, and then cranks it up one more notch when it's determined that the arrest will happen in a few hours.
The characters begin to form alliances, arguing personal circumstance, concepts, lack of family ties, and personal connections as we slowly learn more about each character and how they've influenced each others lives.
This is a well paced, slow burn movie that gets better at it winds tighter. The group finally makes a decision, but the case disappears. No one will go to jail, but these coworkers have devastated their working relationships with nothing to show for it. They've exposed each others secrets, and you can't just regain that trust.
How do you go back to work with someone that argued you had the least to lose and should go to jail for seven years?
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