The Hidden (I) (2005) User Reviews (9)

Sexy and Engaging Thriller

[claudio_carvalho · 7/10 · 17 December 2011]

In Madrid, the editor of the magazine Ziber-Arte, Alex Cuevas (Leonardo Sbaraglia), is invited by Beatriz Bravo (Laia Marull) to participate in a conference about interpretation of dreams.

After the lecture, the participant Natalia Hidalgo (Angie Cepeda) from Barcelona questions the lecturer about the meaning of her dreams with monoliths and symbols, believing that they are premonitions. Natalia is obsessed with her dreams and she tells them to the audience and immediately after, Beatriz faints. Alex feels attracted by the sexy Natalia and she gives her phone to him, since he is preparing a matter about dreams. Then he gives a ride to Beatriz to her home.

Fifteen days later, Beatriz calls Alex asking the phone number of Natalia. Alex promises to deliver her number to Beatriz, but he dates Natalia and forgets to meet Beatriz. However, Natalia asks him to meet Beatriz and she shows a tattoo that she made two years ago in Mexico with the symbols that Angelica mentioned in the lecture. Angelica feels that Beatriz is connected to her and might have the answer to her dreams, and her obsession increases. However, Beatriz goes to a tattoo artist in Madrid and shows that her tattoo is bleeding and he tells that it is normal in a tattoo with fifteen days only. Beatriz continues with her games affecting Angelica's obsession and her relationship with Alex.

The unknown "Oculto" is a sexy and engaging thriller with a good screenplay that combines drama, thriller and eroticism and supported by great performances of the trio of lead cast. The plot shows very soon that Beatriz is a liar but her secret is disclosed little by little, keeping a final surprise in the very end. But who makes this film work is the gorgeous and sexy Angie Cepeda, one of the hottest actresses that I have recently seen. And the best, she is an excellent actress! In the end, "Oculto" was a great surprise. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Oculto"

Dangerous dreams and passions

[MartianOctocretr5 · 7/10 · 29 May 2007]

Interpretation of dreams is the foundational idea of the plot at first, but as this subtle tale develops, it takes on more the dimension of a mystery thriller.

The movie's fulcrum is a passionate triangle with a fine Spanish cast. Two women and a man all become acquainted at convention regarding dream interpretation research. Natalia (a beautiful Angie Cepeda) publicly relates a recurring dream she has been having regarding a distinctive tattoo and a man repeatedly crying out her name. Beatriz (winsomely pretty Laia Marull) seeks out Natalia later to state she has been having identical visions, and thinks she may have insights as to what it's about. Alex, a Casanova lady's man type, becomes involved with both ladies.

What starts as an investigation of this dream mystery gradually evolves into a story of scheming deception, tragedy, revenge, and a woman scorned. As Natalia is tormented by her visions, her interaction with the others becomes obsessive and confused. The acting of the three principals is excellent, and the story is stronger for it.

As far as weaknesses to the movie, the actions of one character are inconsistently vindictive with their other actions. There are a few random gratuitous scenes, such as a pointless sequence showing a series of people using a toilet. It's just weird, and then they speed up the movement making it even sillier.

Overall, a well developed character driven plot line which unfolds with strategic precision. A fine film, worth a watch.

Suspenseful despite the lack of blazing guns and car chases.

[tornari-1 · 7/10 · 29 January 2007]

The acting in this film by Cepeda, Mullar and Sbaraglia are exemplary. They seem to have made the otherwise mundane plot seem like an actual life experience. One viewing will not allow the viewer to appreciate everything that's going on without missing key details. While very edgy on the suspense it is short on pretentiousness and gives the viewer the ability to relate.

An excellent movie to polish up ones Spanish on. While I don't claim to discern the differences in accents, the pronunciation (I would imagine of Spain) certainly lend an elegance and urgency to the conversations.

The women are exquisite in their appearance as in their acting without the need for excessively patronizing sexual innuendo. Mullars lack of obvious make-up application pronounces a sensuality rarely observed even in super-models. All those involved in this movie prove that there is no need for excessive or prolonged steamy scenes to capture the attention of its audience. Does that speak to the beholder?

See it before Hollywood remakes it

[lazarillo · 23 March 2008]

Spain these days has kind of replaced Italy and Britain in offering a European alternative to Hollywood-dominated genre films. These recent Spanish films are enough like Hollywood movies to be dismissed as "rip-offs" by the more ignorant viewers, but they nevertheless tend to have a distinctly European flavor to them as well (which was also true of the British and Italian genre films back in their heyday). However, if anything, it is Hollywood that seems to be ripping off i.e. "remaking" Spanish films these days rather than the reverse. This movie would probably be a good candidate for a Hollywood re-make, but a name cast of Hollywood actors would probably only serve to overwhelm this nifty, efficient little thriller as happened a few years back with "Abre los Ojos", later remade as "Vanilla Sky".

This starts out as a movie that seems to be about dreams and dream interpretation. A woman (the incredibly sexy Columbian actress Angela Cepeda) relates at a conference on dreams some allegedly prophetic dreams she had. This seems to stir something in another woman (Laia Murall, who in contrast to Cepeda, is merely really, really cute) and she faints. The Murall character approaches another attendee, a handsome young male, to get him to put in touch with the Cepeda character. The former seems to have some kind of strange hidden agenda, however (the title of this movie in English would be "Hidden"). At first, it seems she might faking the dream connection in order to have an excuse to stalk the guy, and indeed a love triangle does develop for awhile, but she actually has even more deeply hidden motives that aren't completely revealed until the final frames of the film. This isn't perhaps the most original film ever made, but it certainty keep the audience guessing for awhile.

The acting is very decent and Cepeda, who played "La Colombiana" in the Latin American movie "Pantaleon y los Visatadores" has yet another highly memorable nude sex scene. Check this out before Hollywood discovers it and makes their own bigger-budgeted, but no doubt inferior, remake of it.

Sophisticated (censored!) drama

[sarastro7 · 7/10 · 1 April 2006]

Hm. 19 votes before mine, and a (current) rating of 4.4 out of 10. One does have one's doubts about the IMDb ratings system. On the vote page we can see that only four out of the 19 voters have rated it "4" or less. That doesn't give an average of 4.4 - it would be closer to 5.5. But I guess there's good reasons for the "weighted average" system, as a lot of people tend to vote rather indiscriminately, in either end of the spectrum. The downside is that movies like this, with very few but fairly nuanced votes, receive an official main-page rating that is deceptively low. Doesn't seem quite fair.

Anyway! About the movie. It's good. It can't really be summarized in the usual way without revealing the central mystery of the plot, so I'm going to employ a SPOILER WARNING here. If you want to experience this movie yourself, and you should, then read no further.

*** SPOILER WARNING ***

Although it is not clear from the beginning, the movie is actually a sophisticated revenge drama. A woman, Beatriz, once loved a man, Javier, who was stolen away from her by another, more beautiful woman, Natalia. Natalia then broke up with Javier, who was so distraught that he drove his car into a lake and drowned. Now, Beatriz is out to get revenge on Natalia by setting up a situation where she can do the exact same thing to her. Natalia is interested in dream interpretations, and when she tells a lecturer (during the Q&A session after a lecture) about these dreams, the listening Beatriz realizes that she can use this against Natalia. Gradually, she plants signs from Natalia's dreams in various places, driving Natalia deeper and deeper into nightmarish fear and paranoia. And she also manages, after repeated attempts, to steal Natalia's current boyfriend, Alex, from her. But not quite. When the distraught Natalia ends up trying to kill herself by swallowing a bunch of pills, Beatriz sees that Alex still loves Natalia, and apparently Beatriz then decides that the whole thing has gone on long enough. Natalia survives, and Beatriz ends up asking her forgiveness (without having fully explained what she did to her, though). Revenge is only sweet as long as it is cold, and once Beatriz had her breath taken away by seeing Alex cry about the nearly lifeless Natalia, she could no long maintain the cold and calculating revenge plan. She realized, perhaps, that it was a vicious circle, since she was now doing to Alex what had been done to her.

What makes the movie good is that it keeps the suspense going all the time. We are only alerted to what is actually going on very gradually, through carefully planted clues and details. It successfully keeps you guessing, and for the first part of the movie we even think, along with Natalia, that there might be supernatural forces at work. The true nature of the plot itself comprises the mystery of this movie, and it unravels only little by little as the movie progresses. A nice and original way of serving the plot, keeping open the possibility that it could go in several different directions. And to be honest, there may be some extra dimension to the movie that I simply haven't divined. At least I have a feeling that there might be.

But, overall, a nice and very European movie. I'll rate it a 7 out of 10 for being good and worthwhile - it can certainly stand a couple of watchings, where one might see a lot more details in the early parts. The two main female actresses are both very good.

On the other hand, there are elements of the plot that don't seem credible. Beatriz doesn't seem like a person hateful enough to go through with such a long and calculated revenge plan. And if Natalia stole Javier from her, how come Natalia didn't know Beatriz at all? It all seems to fit together a bit too nicely. Also, as you go into the movie, hearing about monoliths (yeah, the ones from "2001"!) and strange signs, you kind of expect an element of the fantastic, but this turns out not to be there. So, a 7 it is. But I do recommend it.

Enjoyable

[artwk · 6/10 · 19 October 2007]

Only at the end of this movie did I find the illogicalities of the plot annoying. It was as thought the writer and director started out with a very good idea, but could not resist embellishing it with complexities regarding the dreams, premonitions and mysterious symbols.

The result is that A leads to B, and B leads to C -– but then we learn that somehow C and B lead to A, and so on. What could have been a coherent, logical plot-line becomes a mess.

Having said that, I must admit that the movie is watchable to the end, and the actors are engaging and convincing within the constrictions of the storyline. Beatriz seems a little too naive and vulnerable for the revelations of her true intentions, and whoever gave her that appalling haircut should definitely not give up his/her day-job. The repeated references to "2001" seem unnecessary and distracting, and I feel that the same plot material could have been conveyed better in some other way.

Overall, the film could benefit by some judicious cutting, especially the pointless overhead sequence in the toilet, which has nothing to do with anything. Perhaps the director shot it as a student exercise, and couldn't resist shoving it into a movie somewhere?

However, despite its numerous faults, I recommend this movie as enjoyable and entertaining for the most part. Just put your logic on hold, and enjoy the acting and photography.

Rather weak and dull

[TdSmth5 · 5/10 · 3 July 2008]

Alex, some type of editor at an Internet magazine attends a lecture on dream interpretation. At the lecture Natalia (played by the ultra hot Colombian actress Angie Cepeda) asks a question of the lecturer and tells him her strange dreams. During the telling of the dreams one of the women who participated in the organization of the event faints. Natalie tells of dreams where she sees a stone engraved with symbols and that these symbols had some direct correlation with events in the future (at the time of the dreams). The fainter Beatriz, who is an ugly duckling and shy but she wants to get in touch with Natalia. She had previously talked to Alex and now sees him with Natalia so she hopes that through him she can meet her.

Alex, who is supposed to be a total womanizer despite his utter lack of personality manages to get Natalia, too. She is a hottie, independent, assertive, sexual woman- the opposite of Beatriz. Eventually all three meet and we find out that Beatriz got a tattoo months ago that combines the symbols in Natalia's dreams. This freaks Natalia out. They seek the help of a modern-day witch/tarot/type person who ascribes some meaning to all of this which remains to be determined. Alex, on the other hand, doesn't believe in any hocus pocus.

But then we start leaning things about Beatriz. She lied about the age of her tattoo, she had a traumatic experience with an ex who left her for another woman and then disappeared. While Natalia is traveling she gets close to Alex and seduces him, after following him around for a while and spying on him. This guy gets all the women by doing pretty much nothing. His co-worker also amazes at this, while he himself is nearing separation from his wife and daughters. There's a bit of emphasis on romantic relationships in this movie.

Natalia's dreams continue and get more frightening. In addition, someone is tormenting her, too, by replacing her cell-phone with a ring with a man's name engraved on it. Eventually it's too much for her to handle and she tries to commit suicide. But this time we find out the expected. Natalia is the woman for whom the man left Beatriz. Beatriz combined the symbols she found on different postcards that she has from the remains of the man. Symbols that Natalia would recognize. She's the one terrorizing Natalia and she apologizes to her after the suicide attempt.

This could have been the end of the movie, but instead we are taken "2 years ago". To a lodge where Natalia and her co-workers are. A man interrupts. The man is followed by Beatriz. The man tries to get back together with Natalia and makes a scene. Natalia doesn't accept him so he decides to drive his car into a lake. Beatriz follows him and jumps into the water to try, unsuccessfully to rescue him. Fade out. Loooong fade out.

This movie is nearly 2 hours long. The filmmakers are far more fascinated by this material than the audience could ever be. It just drags on and on with nothing happening, no meaningful dialogue, no interesting puzzles. The supernatural angle is completely dismissed for the sake of the revenge angle. That leaves plenty of holes in the story. Im not sure I'm interested in finding out how it's all supposed to work out, because I didn't find myself caring for anyone but Natalia, who is reduced at the end to being a victim. Beatriz and Alex aren't particularly interesting and the story itself, once it leaves out the mystery, doesn't amount to much.

I can't recommend this movie unless you are a fan of Angie Cepeda. In this movie she is naked twice. Once during a dream scene where she walks naked on a street. We don't get to see much of her but her behind. There's a short sex scene where you get to see a little bit more of her great body. In the beginning though when she's out to get Alex, she's terrific, full of energy, giving heart-melting smiles and gestures. Unfortunately she is not allowed to be the heroine of the movie. This movie should have been much shorter or they should have made it more of a psychological thriller or even supernatural thriller. At no point are we aware that Natalia is under such terrible stress. Her suicide attempt isn't warranted. The movie looks and sounds good, had good sets, needs more characters, but mainly a tighter more interesting story.

Excellent, modern and creative Spanish cinema with Latin American stars

[rebelphilos · 8/10 · 16 June 2006]

Dismiss any low ratings given to this film. They must either come from people with a poor understanding of Spanish having a hard time with the subtitles, or from those that consider that good cinema that comes from Spain must be directed by Almodovar or about the miseries of Civil War, or about missing people under military governments, poverty, violence or any other kind of pretty dark stuff if it comes from Latin America.

This is a modern thriller, with suspense, drama, smart story, sharp script, excellent and unconventional camera management, steaming sensuality, and charismatic performances by top Latin American stars Leonardo Sbaraglia and Angie Cepeda.

The gorgeous Natalia (Cepeda) is obsessed with some repetitive dreams she catalogs as premonitions. She catches the interest of Alex (Sbaraglia) as it will happen with any healthy male exposed to this goddess. But she also catches the attention of the plain and shy Beatriz (Laia Marull) who will become the less fortunate character in the love triangle that she completes with her pretensions for Alex, but also the puppet-master in her Machiavellian manipulation of reality to drive Natalia deeply down in her oniric paranoia. Even the skeptic and pragmatic Alex will be dragged in the web of confusion that Beatriz coldly weaves.

I have to concede that the movie begins too sketchy: a lecture about dreams, a long and stiff post-lecture question in which Natalia relates rather plainly her issue some dreams turn premonitions, and Argentinian Sbaraglia faking a Spanish accent. Obviouslly the director was forced to give away too much information right away to allow him to develop all the good stuff that follows. So don't eject the disk too soon, give yourself the chance to enjoy what comes after those few initial minutes. Right after Natalia's boring monologue ends you will be trapped by this film and immediately forget Sbaraglia's faked accent or Cepeda's lame introduction to the story. Sbaraglia will perform smoothly delivering a correct performance as usual, but Cepeda will steal again the screen portraying this irresistible, gorgeous, capricious, fun and outrageous female used to get whatever she wants (I wonder how much of these matches Cepeda herself) but with that fatal (lethal?) obsession. Let me say Cepeda herself is taken from a dream, a contemporary Latin American Briggite Bardot, reassuring she is one of the hottest women alive. And before you complain about my obvious preference for the Colombian as an actress and more, let me round up stating that Spanish Marull delivers a correct performance too.

For those of you guys looking for some skin exposure you won't be disappointed, but be warned Cepeda's nudity may be dangerous for you heart (heart?). You will have something from Marull too. And you gals will have your dose of Sbaraglia too. But let me assure this is just a collateral bonus without which the movie won't lose a ounce of its interest. And let me underscore that none of comments about Angie Cepeda is based on her nude scenes. She is the kind of woman that naturally exudes sensuality even under a dirty overall and two thick coats, in the middle of a tough flu, makeup-free and a week with no shower.

The interpretation of dreams

[jotix100 · 7/10 · 7 October 2006]

At the end of a lecture about the subject of the interpretation of dreams, Natalia, a beautiful young woman, rises to ask a question. Natalia talks about the strange dreams she has been having. In them, Natlia sees a black monolith with some markings on it. She would like to hear something about it, but she doesn't learn anything new. At the same time, Beatriz, who works at the center, faints.

Alex, who has attended the event, becomes interested in Natalia. He tracks her down. At the same time, he is called by Beatriz, who also wants to get the other woman's phone. Beatriz, who has a strange tattoo, that seems to be a copy of what Natalia describes about her dreams. Alex and Natalia begin a torrid romance, but Beatriz is always around as Natalia's life begins to unravel. Everything then points out to an unfortunate love affair Beatriz had with Javier. Beatriz and Natalia have a lot more in common than really meets the eye.

Antonio Fernadez, the director, who also worked on the screen play with Enrique Brasso, shows an unique style to capture the essence of this enjoyable film that starts out as a mystery, but ultimately, the suspense is only until the viewer finds out the real reason for one of the characters avenge something that connects with the past.

Laia Marull, who we loved in "Te doy mis ojos", appears as Beatriz, the girl that is the key to solving the puzzle. Ms. Marull keeps getting better and better, as she shows here. The lovely Angie Cepeda makes an impression as Natalia, the girl with the horrible dreams. Leonardo Sbaraglia appears as Alex.

"Oculto" has a great look thanks to Unax Medina excellent camera work. Antonio Fernandez shows again he is a man to reckoned with.