After a dark, black-humorous combination of satire and the thriller “El autor”, Manuel Martin Cuenca has reunited with the great Spanish actor Javier Guttierez (La isla minima). He was ready for anything for literary fame in the film that earned him the Goya Award for Spanish Actor of the Year. Again, Gutierrez’s character is ready for anything, but in “La hija” or “The Daughter” this time there is nothing humorous, witty or even cynical and ironic. Still, “La hija” also deals with some dark obsessions and human sides, and for this role Gutierrez deserved a nomination for Spanish actor of the year.
Cuenca was also nominated for Best Director, who confirmed with “La hija” that he is an extremely creative and capable director who masterfully builds the rhythm and atmosphere of the film, contrasting beautifully with the beautiful locations of the Spanish province with dark characters and shocking stories. And, perhaps most importantly, he gets the most out of the actors. Not only Gutierrez, but the rest of the team here are brilliant. Gutierrez is Javier, a social worker from a home for neglected children who lives with his wife Adele (Patricia Lopez Arnaiz) on an isolated property somewhere in the hills. Immediately in the introductory scene, he brings 15-year-old Irene home, a girl who had previously run away from home, and we soon realize what the plan is. Javier and Adela have no children, troubled Irene has become pregnant with a guy three or four years older who is currently in jail. After Irene gives birth, he will give them a child, and they will give her money and help her travel somewhere far away.
And it will seem at first that the plan could work because practically no one comes to visit Javier and Adele, but the old policeman, also Javier’s friend, will start investigating the case of the girl’s disappearance. more seriously than Javier assumed. And while Javier tries to give the impression that he is in control and seems completely calm, Adela is restless, more and more desperate and scared. The situation will become even more complicated because Irene will start thinking about the deal and of course everything will slowly start to fall apart. It really fascinates how Cuenca subtly and cleverly builds a story that moves somehow calmly, as if everything is under control, and by the end everything will get out of control. Only with time do the dark sides of the characters and the obsessive need to have a child begin to unfold. While we don’t get an insight into Javier and Adele’s lives before the deal, it’s clear to us that the “gain” of the child may be the only thing that still keeps them together.
And while they both initially act caring towards Irene and it seems to us that they really care about the unhappy and naive girl, after a while it becomes clear to us that they are interested in nothing but achieving their goal. Only the final goal they set is important, and what will happen in between will become completely irrelevant and secondary, and everything will happen there. Thus, people who initially seemed average, good and honest will eventually become completely different people, and both Gutierrez and Lopez Arnaiz are in top form. He made Cuenca another quality film, a dark combination of drama and thriller that does not lag far behind its exceptional predecessor.
