ASHOK’s FIVE reasons to watch Oriol Paulo’s #MIRAGE now streaming on #Netflix – this is a phenomenally intelligent film and like I have said earlier, these Spanish guys are in a different league. Incidentally, the Hindi film “Badla” featuring Tapsee Pannu and Amitabh Bachchan was based on Paulo’s work “The Invisible Guest” which went on to earn 25 million USD in the Chinese market.
1. Watch Mirage if you are fully powered on and ready with all your intellectual faculty in top gear. This is a plot that combines science fiction, drama, noir, emotion, thriller and historical all wrapped in time travel 25 years! The plot is based on the “Butterfly Effect” which refers to a small change that can impact sweeping changes in a different timeline in history. This film spans three distinct timelines and unravelling these makes you stand up in awe!
2. What makes the complex plot above land seamlessly is the screenplay that is like a spider web unravelling slowly but steadily with so many twists and turns and yet all making sense at the end.
3. Adriana Ugate puts in a stellar performance in the lead role as she plays Vera whose journey cuts across the three timelines. In Timeline 1, she gets in touch with Nico a young boy twenty-five years ago in 1989 on the day the Berlin Wall came down and saved his life. In the second timeline, Vera wakes up to find her life completely altered and she is now with a grown-up Nico. She has to kill herself and the senior Nico has to persuade young Nico to abandon a certain course of action. This leads to the third timeline! Mind boggling indeed. Supporting Adriana is Alvaro Morte, whom Indian audiences know as the soft-spoken Professor in Money Heist. Javier Gutierrez plays Angel and audiences will remember him as the Hannibal Lecter look-alike from “The Occupant”.
4. The lack of an emotional core is perhaps one drawback of Mirage and this is a choice made by Paulo in as much as the brilliance of the plot overpowering everything else. Mirage dazzles you with its brilliance but also disappoints a trifle on this point.
5. The Spanish original “Durante La Tormenta” is a truly original story and what amazes you is how real all the happenings seem. Comparisons with Stranger Things and other sci-fi shows have been rampant, but the success of this film lies in its ability to convince you that the plot does lie in your realm of believability.
Mirage is a brilliant piece of work and pulling it off speaks volumes about the ability of Oriol Paulo to tell a complex story. Clear and precise screenplay and complete mastery of the craft comes shining through. Don’t miss Mirage and in case you are perplexed with the ending, do come back and read point 3 above or message me directly!
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